LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — Addressing sickness in the community this time of year, the Chief Medical Officer at Baptist Health summed it up like this:
"It's pretty typical winter. This happens every year, so it's not unexpected, the respiratory virus that we see is COVID-19, obviously, Flu, RSV," Dr. Lee Dossett said.
As for prevention?
"Vaccines, vaccines, vaccines. You know, we have good and effective, safe and effective vaccines for flu that people should get every year, Covid, that people should get every year," Dr. Dossett noted.
Another recommendation?
"If you're an older adult, over 60, you're recommended to get the RSV vaccine," Dr. Dossett added.
There's no vaccine for Norovirus, often called stomach flu. Moderna is working on one in the midst of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reporting outbreaks were up more than 30% by December.
Norovirus symptoms include diarrhea, vomiting, and stomach pain, and it's highly contagious.
"It's spreading around so you know any time you get big groups together, things will spread easily and that's why we recommend if you're feeling ill, it's okay to stay home from work, it's okay to stay home from school," Dr. Dossett said.
Just this past week, the Kentucky Department for Public Health reported a high rate of respiratory illness activity in Kentucky.
"People are closer together, they're not outdoors as much, you got kids in school. They were out of school for awhile, now they are back in," Dr. Dossett said.
In the midst of talks from health officials about a quademic involving flu, RSV, COVID-19, and Norovirus, Dr. Dossett offers this advice regarding serious symptoms.
"Shortness of breath, or if you're able to measure your oxygen and it's low, or you have a fever that won't go away, chest pains, you know, those sorts of symptoms are probably more deserving of an emergency room visit. There's a lot of different access points to the healthcare system for these kinds of symptoms. First, people can just kind of use your own judgment. If they're just feeling under the weather, they can kind of treat it symptomatically and stay home. If you're feeling like it's a little more serious than that, then you can get in to see your permanent care doctor. A lot of places including Baptist Health have Telehealth appointments that you can do virtually from your phone at home where you can talk to a provider. Now, they can't do any testing that way, but they can give you recommendations in order to test, something you can come in and do," Dr. Dossett noted.
Addressing the flu in particular on the local level, Dr. Dossett said 'anecdotally' Baptist Health Lexington is not seeing a big increase in cases, noting there were 21 cases at Baptist Health Lexington as of 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, noting that's not unusual this time of year.
