RSV Is Hospitalizing Seniors at an Abnormally High Rate
Cases of RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) and other respiratory illnesses have been surging throughout the United States. While recent headlines have been focusing on how children infected with RSV have been filling hospitals to capacity, older adults are also being hospitalized at a rate that is unusually high compared with previous years.Latest data (as of the week ending November 5) from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that seniors ages 65 and up with RSV are filling hospital beds at a weekly rate of 1.6 per 100,000. Since the 2014–2015 season, CDC figures show that this hospitalization rate had not risen above 1 per 100,000. In 2018 at this same time of year, seniors with RSV were being admitted to the hospital at a low 0.2 per 100,000…