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Daily Voice sat down with Dr. Daniel Rauch, a pediatric physician at Hackensack Meridian Health's Hackensack University Medical Center, to learn about the most common respiratory viruses and how to stay protected.
A release from Hackensack Meridian Health says some of the best ways to stay protected are to practice good hand hygiene, disinfect surfaces in your home, avoid contact with people who are sick, rest, and eat a healthy diet to boost your immunity.
Rauch stressed that one of the best ways to keep you and your children protected against each virus is to get vaccinated.
"Vaccines are the single greatest public health intervention in the history of medicine," he said. "Tens of millions of people are alive because of vaccines, and people should not be afraid of getting vaccines. They are rigorously tested... and approved to make sure that rare side effects are caught. Anyone with concerns about vaccines should talk to their medical provider."
The respiratory illnesses that Rauch sees in abundance every fall and winter are:
Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) is by far the most common respiratory virus and has been in the news as part of the "triple-demic." It's a seasonal virus, which we think of in the Northeast as a fall and winter virus, the doctor said. RSV went away during the height of COVID — because of isolation, it wasn’t being spread around. Then, shockingly, it came back in the summer, which was a very odd time distribution, Rauch said: "Don’t mess with Mother Nature."
RSV eventually settled into a pre-COVID pattern as a late, fall-winter illness.
RSV does not provoke an effective lasting immune response, which means you can get RSV in October or November, and then get it again a couple of months later because your body’s memory, unlike other viral illnesses, doesn’t produce lasting response and protection, Rauch explained. That’s why it's so difficult to get a vaccine (although Rauch noted it seems scientists are very close as one is now available for adults).
Earlier this year, the FDA approved an RSV antibody to protect infants. The Food and Drug Administration approved the injection for infants and children up to two years old who face an increased risk of severe RSV. It is a laboratory-made version of the antibody that helps the immune system fight off RSV. There is currently no RSV vaccine for children, but several companies are looking into one.
The RSV antibody is given by a single injection to babies, including preterm infants, to protect against their first RSV season. Children up to age two can receive another dose during their second RSV season. There is also an RSV shot available for pregnant women to help protect their children immediately after birth.
The vaccine for adults is being used for people over the age of 60, which appears to confer several years of protection for senior citizens, Rauch said. For pregnant women, RSV vaccination takes a slightly different strategy, as the mother is used as a factory of protection, which transfers to the unborn baby. Rach says that the route has proven reasonably effective.
Influenza or "the flu" is coming around again, Rauch said. It's a "nasty virus" that children and senior citizens have died from, but interestingly, older children have lower risk of severe illness (but can still spread to others).
"We’d like everyone to be protected and get the vaccine," Rach said, noting that it's impossible to get the flu from the vaccine.
"All vaccines work by promoting your own immune system to have a response, which is what you may feel when you get the vaccine — it's just your body reacting and you will be protected from bad outcomes, namely hospitalization and death."
Pertussis, or whooping cough, took a dip during COVID but has since made a "huge comeback," Rauch said. The pertussis vaccine is the least effective and shortest acting, the physician said. Adults can get pertussis and pass it on to kids, who aren't fully protected until they've had the full series of shots.
"It's a nasty illness called the hundred-day cough — a really bad cough that lasts for a long time."
For infants, the cough can be so bad that they can get brain bleeds from the pressure and die. For anyone else, the cough can be inconveniencing, but Rauch encourages anyone who will be around infants to get vaccinated.
The whooping cough got its name because of the whoop sound that it makes, which Rauch explained is a very deep breath taken to let out the cough. Infants don't have the strength to take the breath, so their cough doesn't produce the same sound as adults, the physician said.
Measles is the No. 1 viral killer of children in the world, Rauch said, stressing that this highly contagious illness is not a cold, but rather a bad disease. Even if you survive the measles, a rare, long-term side-effect is a degenerative brain disease that has no cure and no treatment, Rauch said.
Rauch noted that the vaccine is very effective and, while rumored to cause autism, absolutely does not, the physician said. The measles are characterized by a bad cough, runny nose with thick mucus, the classic measles rash, and severe conjunctivitis, "Like you went a couple of rounds with Mike Tyson."
COVID remains the leading cause of death in the United States, according to Rauch. "It has not gone away and it's still a bad disease," he said. Scientists are still working to understand the long-term effects of COVID, which have namely been cognitive and cardiac, the doctor said.
"Protect yourself," Rauch said. "Be part of society and protect others. "Vaccines have been highly effective so that we don’t have epidemics where in every town people get sick and die. We don't want to take that step back.
"We should stay blissfully unaware of how these preventable diseases are by getting vaccinated."
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