Respiratory illnesses are on the rise in Louisiana, according to the state Department of Health’s dashboard.
The most recent data shows an uptick in emergency department visits, and state epidemiologist Theresa Sokol said a little less than 10% of those visits are attributed to COVID, influenza or RSV. Rising numbers could grow even more with cases post-Mardi Gras. Sokol said the epidemic baseline for flu is around 4% of ER visits, and the current rate is 8%. Data is updated weekly at the end of the week.
WRKF Capitol Access reporter Brooke Thorington spoke with Sokol to learn more.
The following conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.
BROOKE THORINGTON, REPORTER:
I'm talking to state epidemiologist Theresa Sokol. Thank you so much for talking to me today. It seems like we're hearing about a lot of cases about the flu and we're also hearing about cases of COVID. Tell us a little bit about where the state stands in terms of respiratory illnesses going around right now.
THERESA SOKOL: The Louisiana Department of Health does have a viral respiratory disease dashboard. It's updated with new data every Friday, and it shows emergency department visits, laboratory data, hospitalizations and the number of deaths, related to sort of the three big respiratory viruses, which are COVID-19, influenza and RSV (respiratory syncytial virus).
Over the past year, COVID visits really have remained fair. Emergency Department (ED) visits related to COVID-19 have remained fairly low. They really only surpassed flu during the summer and during a sort of respiratory virus season (the fall and winter), which typically starts at the very beginning of October.
It’s really been the flu that has been driving these increases that we've been seeing in respiratory illnesses. Now we saw a peak at the end of December, and at that time, about 18% of all the emergency department visits in Louisiana were related to COVID flu and RSV. Mostly flu, to be honest, at that time.
Then, after that, what we saw was that ED visits, until about the third week in January, we started to see an uptick specifically in flu activity. Now, this is really not uncommon to see an increase in respiratory viruses after the winter holidays because during the winter holidays, people tend to travel and gather together, and then after that, schools and colleges resume classes, so that you have more interaction and opportunities for spread in those settings as well.
So this is not really an uncommon trend that we're seeing, but we are seeing that flu has, sort of uptick since that third week in January, and it's kind of remained a little bit elevated, not as high as it was in December, but it is a little bit elevated and continues to increase a little bit.
THORINGTON: I know we've heard a lot about local schools closing down for a week or so because students are out with the flu. Is there any concern that post Mardi Gras, we could see a spike in respiratory illnesses?
SOKOL: Well, it's certainly possible. So, the data that we have on our dashboard right now goes through February 14th. So if we see a spike related to Mardi Gras, it probably wouldn't be available or wouldn't be obvious in our data yet. Now, on Friday, we will update that data, and you'll see another week, but it might take a week or two. I think that the data we have right now is not updated enough to be able to see whether or not we're gonna see an increased post-Mardi Gras.
What I will say about Mardi Gras is that a lot of the activities take place outside, and so there's less transmission of respiratory viruses when people are outside. However, people are still in very close quarters, even though they are outside, and that does increase the likelihood of transmission. And then also a lot of people gather indoors for parties.
And of course, in indoor settings, respiratory viruses are more likely to spread from person to person because of course, as folks know, they spread through respiratory droplets that are released when an infected person coughs, sneezes or talks. They're also spread by touching contaminated surfaces.
And then potentially touching the face, mouth, and nose. Also, with direct exchange of respiratory secretion. So if people were to eat or drink, share drinks or food, that sort of thing, that would be another way that it could be transmitted. So it's definitely a possibility that the wonderful activities that we all love to engage in during Mardi Gras season could result in a bit of an increase.
But I will say that we're seeing elevated activities continue, activity continues right now for flu. Typically, what we sort of consider our baseline or sort of epidemic threshold is right around 4% of emergency department visits related to flu. For example, what we're seeing now is closer to about 8%.
So even what we're seeing right now still shows that we're seeing elevated levels of activity throughout the state.
THORINGTON: Any other points that you think we need to cover about this topic?
SOKOL: I always like to talk a little bit about how people can protect themselves and a little bit about who is at risk because a lot of the illnesses that people experience from COVID, Flu, and RSV, can be mild for a lot of people, but there are complications that can result from any of these viruses that can include pneumonia, acute respiratory distress syndrome.
In severe cases, heart failure or death. And there are certain people who are at higher risk to experience these sorts of severe illnesses and serious complications from these viruses. Adults who are 65 years and older, and children who are younger than two, these folks are usually at higher risk for getting very sick. And then people with certain underlying conditions.
So, for example, chronic lung disease, heart disease, diabetes, chronic kidney disease, people who might have a weakened immune system, a disability, or are pregnant.
These conditions could increase their risk. And there are lots of different ways that you can help reduce your risk of being infected with one of these respiratory viruses or for developing severe disease.
So, immunizations are available for all three of the major illnesses. Flu, COVID and RSV vaccines have been shown to reduce the risk of hospitalization and severe illness. So we recommend that people talk to their healthcare provider about what may be recommended for themselves and their families.
I always like to remind people to practice good hygiene, washing hands, and cleaning and commonly touched surfaces.
Tests are available that can really quickly detect these respiratory viruses. So, if a patient might need some treatment, that treatment can be provided very quickly. And then, avoiding close contact with people who are sick, staying home when you are sick, and then covering those coughs and sneezes just helps reduce the transmission in the community.
THORINGTON: How are respiratory illnesses reported to the Department of Health?
SOKOL: We have several different sources of data. So, I mean, as you can imagine, there are lots and lots of people who are infected with these respiratory viruses every year.
We do not collect individual reports of cases anymore. So, it's not as if a local doctor would diagnose someone with the flu and then report. Because that would be a lot of data and we have other ways to more efficiently track what the trends are for these viruses. And the, one of the main ways we do that is through emergency department data.
Well over 90% of the emergency departments in Louisiana submit data to us, and we are able to use some of the information, the discharge diagnoses in those ED data to capture visits that are related to COVID-19 to influenza and to RSV. And so those are the visits that we track on our dashboard.
When you look at our dashboard and you see emergency department visits for respiratory illnesses, you'll see the percentage of ED visits that are related to those respiratory viruses. So, when we start to see an increasing percentage that are related to a respiratory virus, we know that that's when activity in our communities is increasing.
And so we want people to be able to go to our dashboard so that they can see what those activity levels are and they know when they might need to start taking some of those measures that we talked about to protect themselves and their families.
We also include laboratory data. Those are hospitals that report information to us about the number of tests that have been performed for these respiratory viruses, and then the number that were positive. We call that percent positivity.
It's the percentage of all of the tests for these respiratory viruses that are positive. And so when we start to see that percent positivity increase, that's another indicator that there's an increase in the circulation of these viruses in our community.
So, people can also have an idea of some of the more severe health consequences related to these viruses. We also post data related to the number of hospitalizations that are related to COVID and for influenza.
But the data are actually reported directly from the hospitals themselves. And they are reported through a national reporting system. Then we display that data on our dashboards so that Louisiana residents can see what's happening with regard to hospitalizations among Louisiana residents.
And lastly, we also report death data. We report deaths that are associated with COVID-19, the flu and with RSV for both adult and pediatric patients. We really have sort of a few different sources that we use, but we feel like including all of these different sources of data and all of these different indicators of activity and severity. It really helps give our residents a good sort of comprehensive idea of what's happening in Louisiana and also in their communities, because with some of this data, they can look at a specific region and see what's happening in their sort of local area.
THORINGTON: Theresa, thank you so much for your time today, and we'll keep our fingers crossed that everybody stays healthy.
