Post by Nadica (She/Her) on Aug 1, 2024 21:50:44 GMT
It's likely not a cold: Why COVID cases are skyrocketing in Louisiana this summer - Published Aug 1, 2024
If it seems like everyone you know with a sniffle is getting two lines on a COVID test, you’re not alone.
Louisiana is in the throes of another summer uptick of COVID-19, a now familiar pattern in the state’s fifth year of seasonal surges. While other respiratory viruses typically lay low during summer months, COVID-19 makes another round in warm weather.
Hospitals and urgent cares are still admitting a few cases of flu and other similar illnesses, but the majority is COVID, said Dr. Katherine Baumgarten, medical director of infection prevention at Ochsner Health.
“That's the exception, not the rule,” said Baumgarten. “Right now, the rule is: We're seeing COVID.”
According to federal data, coronavirus levels in Louisiana’s wastewater have been on the rise since June, with a slight dip in mid-July after a month of increases. Louisiana’s wastewater levels are about 50% higher than the national average, and the state is one of 20 reporting “very high” amounts of coronavirus in the wastewater.
Ochsner, Louisiana’s largest health system, had about 5 to 10 COVID patients statewide a few months ago. Now, about 130 hospitalized patients have COVID, said Baumgarten.
The current spike has already surpassed last summer’s surge, though it’s not as high as the winter uptick earlier this year.
Why a summer spike?
COVID-19 has settled into a pattern of infection that emerges around every six months.
That’s somewhat to do with the time necessary for the virus to shift and develop new mutations that the immune system does not recognize, allowing for another infection, said Baumgarten.
The increase in infections is also driven by a desire to escape the heat in conditions that put people in close proximity.
“Especially in the south, people congregate inside when it gets hot,” said Baumgarten. “There's a lot of travel in the summertime, too.”
The current surge across the U.S. is being driven by a set of variants known as FLiRT, which all have picked up the same set of mutations in the spike protein – the pointy part of the virus that hooks into cells to infect them.
Who is getting infected?
There is no evidence that symptoms caused by these variants are more severe than previous variants, but it does seem to transmit from person to person more easily. Response to a COVID infection is more dependent on immunity and overall health, said Dr. Julio Figueroa, chief of infectious disease at LSU Health New Orleans.
“COVID doesn't seem to care about how old you are, per se, in terms of transmission,” Figueroa said.
But when it comes to the effects, those more likely to need hospitalization are people with other chronic conditions or diminished immune systems.
“COVID kind of tips you over,” said Figueroa.
People are not necessarily being hospitalized for the same level of respiratory disease that required ventilation in years’ past, said Baumgarten, but COVID is playing a role in hospitalization. For example, it can make blood sugar regulation much more difficult in diabetes patients.
“When they get infected with COVID it tips that medical condition into becoming more difficult to control,” said Baumgarten.
An updated version of the COVID vaccine, which can prevent severe illness and hospitalization, will be available sometime in late August or early September, said Baumgarten.
If it seems like everyone you know with a sniffle is getting two lines on a COVID test, you’re not alone.
Louisiana is in the throes of another summer uptick of COVID-19, a now familiar pattern in the state’s fifth year of seasonal surges. While other respiratory viruses typically lay low during summer months, COVID-19 makes another round in warm weather.
Hospitals and urgent cares are still admitting a few cases of flu and other similar illnesses, but the majority is COVID, said Dr. Katherine Baumgarten, medical director of infection prevention at Ochsner Health.
“That's the exception, not the rule,” said Baumgarten. “Right now, the rule is: We're seeing COVID.”
According to federal data, coronavirus levels in Louisiana’s wastewater have been on the rise since June, with a slight dip in mid-July after a month of increases. Louisiana’s wastewater levels are about 50% higher than the national average, and the state is one of 20 reporting “very high” amounts of coronavirus in the wastewater.
Ochsner, Louisiana’s largest health system, had about 5 to 10 COVID patients statewide a few months ago. Now, about 130 hospitalized patients have COVID, said Baumgarten.
The current spike has already surpassed last summer’s surge, though it’s not as high as the winter uptick earlier this year.
Why a summer spike?
COVID-19 has settled into a pattern of infection that emerges around every six months.
That’s somewhat to do with the time necessary for the virus to shift and develop new mutations that the immune system does not recognize, allowing for another infection, said Baumgarten.
The increase in infections is also driven by a desire to escape the heat in conditions that put people in close proximity.
“Especially in the south, people congregate inside when it gets hot,” said Baumgarten. “There's a lot of travel in the summertime, too.”
The current surge across the U.S. is being driven by a set of variants known as FLiRT, which all have picked up the same set of mutations in the spike protein – the pointy part of the virus that hooks into cells to infect them.
Who is getting infected?
There is no evidence that symptoms caused by these variants are more severe than previous variants, but it does seem to transmit from person to person more easily. Response to a COVID infection is more dependent on immunity and overall health, said Dr. Julio Figueroa, chief of infectious disease at LSU Health New Orleans.
“COVID doesn't seem to care about how old you are, per se, in terms of transmission,” Figueroa said.
But when it comes to the effects, those more likely to need hospitalization are people with other chronic conditions or diminished immune systems.
“COVID kind of tips you over,” said Figueroa.
People are not necessarily being hospitalized for the same level of respiratory disease that required ventilation in years’ past, said Baumgarten, but COVID is playing a role in hospitalization. For example, it can make blood sugar regulation much more difficult in diabetes patients.
“When they get infected with COVID it tips that medical condition into becoming more difficult to control,” said Baumgarten.
An updated version of the COVID vaccine, which can prevent severe illness and hospitalization, will be available sometime in late August or early September, said Baumgarten.