Viruses are up in Bay State: Is it COVID, the flu, a common cold or allergies?
It’s not only COVID-19 that’s making people feel under the weather these days.
Many residents across the Bay State are feeling pretty sick this spring, as the four-headed monster of COVID, the flu, common colds and allergies are all rising at the same time — and causing plenty of stress as people wonder if they have COVID.
There has been a recent “dramatic” uptick in nonCOVID respiratory virus tests among patients and outpatients at Tufts Medical Center.
“Respiratory viruses are up for sure,” added Shira Doron, infectious disease physician and hospital epidemiologist at Tufts Medical Center.
“We’re seeing quite a bit of non-COVID coronaviruses,” Doron said of common cold viruses that are circulating the region as more people take off their masks, and leave themselves susceptible to getting sick after more than two years of the pandemic.
Those viruses include human metapneumovirus — which causes an upper respiratory infection. Local doctors have also been seeing patients being sick with human rhinovirus/enterovirus.
Meanwhile, flu severity for Massachusetts has been moderate. The percent of hospitalizations associated with influenza is 1.22%, which is higher than last season and the 20192020 season, but similar to the 2018-2019 season. More influenza A than influenza B positive specimens have been reported.
Then there’s people suffering from spring allergies, as pollen triggers symptoms for a lot of people.
“There are clues to distinguish between the four (COVID, flu, common cold and allergies), but without a positive test, you can never be sure,” Doron said.
One distinguishing symptom for allergies is itchiness — itchy eyes, itchy throat, itchy nose.
“You’re more likely to be sneezing from allergies than from COVID,” Doron said.
Those who have the flu typically do not have nose symptoms — the nasal congestion and sinus pressure that someone might get from a common cold.
“When you get the flu, it typically comes on like you’re hit by a truck all of a zzsudden,” Doron said, noting the intense fatigue, body aches and fever. “It can be difficult to distinguish from COVID.”
A COVID symptom has been the loss of smell and taste, but those symptoms have gone away a bit ever since the omicron variant and subvariants arrived.
People who have a common cold will usually have nasal symptoms and could have a sore throat, which has been a prominent feature of omicron.
Anyone with respiratory symptoms should get tested for COVID, Doron said. At-home tests can take days to turn positive, she cautioned.
Doron added that people who are experiencing respiratory viral symptoms and test negative for COVID should continue to mask up to avoid spreading their non-COVID illness to others.