Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The term quademic has been circulating all month as four
viruses have been on the rise in the US, covid, flu, RSV,
and neurovirus. Joining us now on the KWA Common Spirit
Health Hotline to talk more about it is Internal Medicine
physician with Common Spirit. It's doctor Sarah goodpastor doctor Goodpastor.
Thank you so much for your time this morning.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Oh thank you so much for having me. It's my
pleasure walk.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Us through these four viruses that we've been hearing of
as of late with the quademic. Is this something that
is to be a major concern of or is this
just the winter sickness that we see around this time
of the year.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Sure, well, I think what's interesting is we are seeing
some new trends that we haven't seen in years past.
So it is something to take notice of, for sure.
If you look at the four viruses, if you look
at the Colorad Department of Public Health data that we
have right now, what we're seeing is a surge in
essentially mostly the flu. We are seeing high RFV cases
(00:59):
as well. Well. The covid is present, but the cases
are on the lower side compared to other times. In fact,
if you look at August. We actually had a larger
bump in August on COVID than we do now. But
certainly influenza is a major issue. We're seeing that across
the nation with you know, as much as many as
five hundred thousand hospitalizations you know, across the US, and
(01:23):
you know, as much as can be said almost about
fifty thousand deaths from the flu. So we are seeing
high influenza activity. And notably, neurovirus is very interesting this year.
If we look at trends in neurovirus, you can look
and see that we're about double any other years that
we've had in terms of neurovirus, and that's turning back
(01:44):
to twenty twelve. And they think this has to do
with potentially a news strain that's been present we haven't
seen before. Some more people are getting infected with this
nor restrain.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Doctor Goodpastor, I want to focus on the flu for
a minute before we go to the neurovirus as well.
When it comes to the surge and flu cases that
we've seen as of late, is that because we're not
targeting the right strain when it came to the flu
vaccine this year, or how does that kind of work
this year, well.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Not necessarily. You know, the flu vaccine is never one
hundred percent match because the viruses do mutate. Essentially, what
the flu vaccine does is it prevents severe illness. So
we do see that if people get the flu, they're
less likely to be hospitalized or end up in the ICU,
or die from the flu. This year, I think we're
seeing it about a forty percent match to the current
(02:32):
circulating virus. But this is common for this time of
the year. I mean, between December and February we see
our highest cases of influenza, and that's typically because people
are spending more times more time congregating indoors because of
the colder weather. And you know, we have seen and
this isn't our worst flu year by any measure, but
we have seen a drop in those kind of pre
(02:55):
pandemic measures that we used to take, wearing masks if
we're in public, or staying home if we're sick. And
so we're seeing this match about in line with our
twenty seventeen and twenty eighteen season, so less than years
previous because of those pre pandemic are those sorry, post
pandemic measures, but certainly we've seen a flu season like
(03:16):
this before.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
Welk us a little bit through the definition of the
neural virus why we've seen such a high rise in
cases in our state this year.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
Sure, sure, some people do say that they think it's
that change in post pandemic behavior, but we certainly have
seen also a new strain. It's the G eleven seventeen strain,
and that's been introduced. And when we don't have a
pre existing immunity to a strain, we're all going to
have more symptomatic disease, and so they think that that's
probably what's happening. You know, that it's a new strain
(03:50):
for all of us, and then you just combine that
with the fact that we're all inside more often, we're
you know, we're congregating in these different areas across Colorado,
and we do see different trends in terms of wastewater activity,
which is actually a really fascinating thing to follow. You
can follow that on the Department of Public Health in
(04:10):
Colorado for your area and you can see what's circulating
in the wastewater and where we are with those trends.
So that's kind of a fascinating way to keep an
eye on things.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
If you're interested doctor, when it comes to any of
these four that we're discussing right now, what are the
best ways to just overall prevent being sick during this
time of the year.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Sure, that's a great question. I mean, I think in general,
handwashing is still number one. So for most of the viruses,
they are droplet transmission, so that means that they're going
to be they're going to be on your hands, and
then you're going to touch your nose and your mouth
or eat food with those things, and so really keeping
your hands clean before you intend to touch your face
(04:50):
and washing frequently is going to be your best bet. COVID,
of course, is respiratory transmission or sorry, air transmission, respiratory droplets,
so that is going to require a little bit more
mask wearing if you if you really don't want to
get infected with COVID. Otherwise you know, just the hand
washing hand sanitizer is a good option. Unfortunately, with neuro
virus that's not the case. It will take care of flu,
(05:13):
but with neual virus, hand sanitizer does not seem to
be as effective, So you'll want to make sure that
you're really washing hands with soap and water and just
remember that, you know, when you have a virus like this,
you're contagious during the time that you're sick, but you're
also contagious after that period, and with kids it can
sometimes be as much as two weeks later. And it
takes very very few neuro virus particles. We when we
(05:36):
have you know, vomiting or something like that, there are
billions of neuro virus particles that go out, but it
only takes ten particles to infect someone. So just remember
that when you're also post illness, keep your keep washing
your hands, keep cleaning surfaces with bleach water and things
like that to keep those to keep those areas clean.
(05:57):
But yeah, certainly, i'd say hand washing is the number
one thing that we can do to prevent if you
can get if you have access to a vaccine for
influenza and you haven't done that yet, I would still
recommend that our flu season goes all the way to May,
and so it's still possible to get that protection from
the flu vaccine. And then certainly if you do get
infected with the flu or what you think might be
(06:19):
the flu or covid, talk to someone early. You know
they're over the counter flu and COVID tests, and if
you have an early positive test and you can get
on one of the anti virals, remembering that influenza, you
want to be on that within forty eight hours of
symptoms start in order to prevent the virus from unfolding
and replicating. So if you can do that early, you
can reduce your risk of severe disease as well as
(06:42):
your risk of transmitting the disease to others.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
Stay safe and healthy with Common Spirit Health. It's doctor
Sarah Goodpastor. Thank you so much for your insight on
this this morning. We appreciate it
The term quademic has been circulating all month as four
viruses have been on the rise in the US, covid, flu, RSV,
and neurovirus. Joining us now on the KWA Common Spirit
Health Hotline to talk more about it is Internal Medicine
physician with Common Spirit. It's doctor Sarah goodpastor doctor Goodpastor.
Thank you so much for your time this morning.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Oh thank you so much for having me. It's my
pleasure walk.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Us through these four viruses that we've been hearing of
as of late with the quademic. Is this something that
is to be a major concern of or is this
just the winter sickness that we see around this time
of the year.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Sure, well, I think what's interesting is we are seeing
some new trends that we haven't seen in years past.
So it is something to take notice of, for sure.
If you look at the four viruses, if you look
at the Colorad Department of Public Health data that we
have right now, what we're seeing is a surge in
essentially mostly the flu. We are seeing high RFV cases
(00:59):
as well. Well. The covid is present, but the cases
are on the lower side compared to other times. In fact,
if you look at August. We actually had a larger
bump in August on COVID than we do now. But
certainly influenza is a major issue. We're seeing that across
the nation with you know, as much as many as
five hundred thousand hospitalizations you know, across the US, and
(01:23):
you know, as much as can be said almost about
fifty thousand deaths from the flu. So we are seeing
high influenza activity. And notably, neurovirus is very interesting this year.
If we look at trends in neurovirus, you can look
and see that we're about double any other years that
we've had in terms of neurovirus, and that's turning back
(01:44):
to twenty twelve. And they think this has to do
with potentially a news strain that's been present we haven't
seen before. Some more people are getting infected with this
nor restrain.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Doctor Goodpastor, I want to focus on the flu for
a minute before we go to the neurovirus as well.
When it comes to the surge and flu cases that
we've seen as of late, is that because we're not
targeting the right strain when it came to the flu
vaccine this year, or how does that kind of work
this year, well.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Not necessarily. You know, the flu vaccine is never one
hundred percent match because the viruses do mutate. Essentially, what
the flu vaccine does is it prevents severe illness. So
we do see that if people get the flu, they're
less likely to be hospitalized or end up in the ICU,
or die from the flu. This year, I think we're
seeing it about a forty percent match to the current
(02:32):
circulating virus. But this is common for this time of
the year. I mean, between December and February we see
our highest cases of influenza, and that's typically because people
are spending more times more time congregating indoors because of
the colder weather. And you know, we have seen and
this isn't our worst flu year by any measure, but
we have seen a drop in those kind of pre
(02:55):
pandemic measures that we used to take, wearing masks if
we're in public, or staying home if we're sick. And
so we're seeing this match about in line with our
twenty seventeen and twenty eighteen season, so less than years
previous because of those pre pandemic are those sorry, post
pandemic measures, but certainly we've seen a flu season like
(03:16):
this before.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
Welk us a little bit through the definition of the
neural virus why we've seen such a high rise in
cases in our state this year.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
Sure, sure, some people do say that they think it's
that change in post pandemic behavior, but we certainly have
seen also a new strain. It's the G eleven seventeen strain,
and that's been introduced. And when we don't have a
pre existing immunity to a strain, we're all going to
have more symptomatic disease, and so they think that that's
probably what's happening. You know, that it's a new strain
(03:50):
for all of us, and then you just combine that
with the fact that we're all inside more often, we're
you know, we're congregating in these different areas across Colorado,
and we do see different trends in terms of wastewater activity,
which is actually a really fascinating thing to follow. You
can follow that on the Department of Public Health in
(04:10):
Colorado for your area and you can see what's circulating
in the wastewater and where we are with those trends.
So that's kind of a fascinating way to keep an
eye on things.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
If you're interested doctor, when it comes to any of
these four that we're discussing right now, what are the
best ways to just overall prevent being sick during this
time of the year.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Sure, that's a great question. I mean, I think in general,
handwashing is still number one. So for most of the viruses,
they are droplet transmission, so that means that they're going
to be they're going to be on your hands, and
then you're going to touch your nose and your mouth
or eat food with those things, and so really keeping
your hands clean before you intend to touch your face
(04:50):
and washing frequently is going to be your best bet. COVID,
of course, is respiratory transmission or sorry, air transmission, respiratory droplets,
so that is going to require a little bit more
mask wearing if you if you really don't want to
get infected with COVID. Otherwise you know, just the hand
washing hand sanitizer is a good option. Unfortunately, with neuro
virus that's not the case. It will take care of flu,
(05:13):
but with neual virus, hand sanitizer does not seem to
be as effective, So you'll want to make sure that
you're really washing hands with soap and water and just
remember that, you know, when you have a virus like this,
you're contagious during the time that you're sick, but you're
also contagious after that period, and with kids it can
sometimes be as much as two weeks later. And it
takes very very few neuro virus particles. We when we
(05:36):
have you know, vomiting or something like that, there are
billions of neuro virus particles that go out, but it
only takes ten particles to infect someone. So just remember
that when you're also post illness, keep your keep washing
your hands, keep cleaning surfaces with bleach water and things
like that to keep those to keep those areas clean.
(05:57):
But yeah, certainly, i'd say hand washing is the number
one thing that we can do to prevent if you
can get if you have access to a vaccine for
influenza and you haven't done that yet, I would still
recommend that our flu season goes all the way to May,
and so it's still possible to get that protection from
the flu vaccine. And then certainly if you do get
infected with the flu or what you think might be
(06:19):
the flu or covid, talk to someone early. You know
they're over the counter flu and COVID tests, and if
you have an early positive test and you can get
on one of the anti virals, remembering that influenza, you
want to be on that within forty eight hours of
symptoms start in order to prevent the virus from unfolding
and replicating. So if you can do that early, you
can reduce your risk of severe disease as well as
(06:42):
your risk of transmitting the disease to others.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
Stay safe and healthy with Common Spirit Health. It's doctor
Sarah Goodpastor. Thank you so much for your insight on
this this morning. We appreciate it
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!