Flu and RSV cases rising in Savannah

SAVANNAH, Ga. (WTOC) - As children continue getting sick with the Flu and RSV, doctors at Memorial say the Children’s Hospital is experiencing the highest volume they’ve seen in recent years.

Director of the Children’s Hospital Dr. Michael Bossak says there are about 3 to 4 kids coming to the hospital daily with Respiratory Syncytial Virus or RSV and 2 to 3 kids with the flu.

He believes the COVID pandemic is to blame for the uptick in RSV cases.

“I think we’re seeing a revisit to where we used to be and so RSV has just fleeted from the mind of the public over the last two years as we have been masked and children have not been around one another,” Dr Michael Bossak said.

He says he expects RSV to become a year around virus to look out for with several peaks a year.

“Now we are seeing that on top of the Flu, on top of COVID and therefore it’s becoming this issue of bed capacity and space for everyone.”

While children are getting the Flu very early in the Flu season, so are adults. There are four hospitalizations at Memorial. And with Georgia having the most Flu cases in the nation, Dr. Tim Connelly says we haven’t reached a peak in cases. Doctors expecting the uptick to get worse.

“Typically the Flu will peak in February. Sometimes there’s two peaks in a year. However, it’s likely to get worse before it gets better.”

He’s worried people will get multiple viruses like the Flu, COVID and RSV all at once.

“I’m very concerned about people that have no immunity, meaning they’ve either not been vaccinated or not been exposed to the virus in the past few years and then they get multiple respiratory viruses at one time. That almost always leads to a very bad presentation and a very high severity of illness,” Dr. Tim Connelly said.

He continues to encourage people to get vaccinated against the Flu and COVID. He says the Flu vaccine takes two weeks to get in. Making it best to get the shot sooner than later.

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