ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Health experts say flu cases are higher than usual right now and the number of cases is expected to go up.
Dr. Juan Dumois, a pediatric infectious disease physician at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital, says they are also seeing a high number of RSV cases for this time of year.
While dealing with these two illnesses, doctors are still seeing patients infected with COVID-19.
"When people talk about a triple pandemic they are really talking about the impact of multiple viruses hitting a community in large numbers at the same time," Dumois explained.
He says one of the main things that health experts are concerned about is clinics and hospitals filling up.
"If you have two or three or four viruses circulating in a community at the same time then you have people presenting to the doctors’ offices, urgent care clinics and emergency rooms around the same time even if they don’t all have the same thing," he said.
He says healthcare workers are already gearing up to see these increases continue.
"An emergency room for example that is used to seeing 20 patients every couple of hours with respiratory symptoms now they are seeing 60,” Dumois added.
He says just because you have one infection, doesn’t mean you aren’t at risk for any others.
"Getting Covid and another virus at the same time is so common," he said. "I have seen where one child tested positive for 5 different viruses at the same time."
Health experts like Dr. Dumois are urging people to get their Covid and flu shots. They say that is the best protection against severe illness.