WBAL Hospitals across Maryland are seeing an increase in patients with respiratory illnesses. Doctors said cases of the flu, COVID-19 and RSV are spiking.
“Influenza is really increasing, particularly over the last two weeks,” Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health virologist Dr. Andy Pekosz said.
“All of them, you’ll often feel very lousy. You’ll feel achy, you have a cough, you may have a headache, you might have a scratchy throat. So, they’re all very similar in that way,” LifeBridge Health Dr. Miriam Alexander said.
If you experience any of those symptoms, Alexander said the first step is to figure out what is causing your illness. There are tests for each of the three major viruses as well as antiviral medication to treat the flu and COVID-19.
“The most urgent thing that people with severe viral infections need is what we call supportive care, which might be oxygen (or) IV fluids, because in general, the antivirals are not magic pills,” Alexander said.