Trio Of Illnesses, New Flu Mutation Concerns Experts: What To Know In MD

Close gatherings over the Thanksgiving holiday could cause an uptick in emergency room visits in Maryland due to a trio of respiratory illnesses that typically increase this time of year, as well as a new mutation of the common flu that doesn’t respond to this year’s flu shot.

Maryland emergency rooms typically see an increase in COVID-19, influenza and RSV rates during the holidays. This year’s flu season could be more serious due to a new Influenza H3N2 mutation known as “subclade K,” which is spreading in North America, including the United States.

Although the current flu vaccine offers protection against the H3N2 strain, it doesn’t cover subclade K, which hadn’t been identified when the vaccine was developed. The variant has mutated seven times, making H3N2 an even more serious threat, according to experts.

“Knowing that there’s a new mutated strain out there and H3N2 generally causes more severe disease is concerning,” Dr. Robert Hopkins Jr., medical director of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases, told NBC’s “Today” show.

The symptoms of the new strain are similar to those caused by common influenza, including fever, chills, body aches, headaches, extreme fatigue, congestion or runny nose, and coughing.

The symptoms come on suddenly. “It’s that hit-by-a-truck feeling,” Hopkins told “Today.”

This particular mutation is now dominant in many countries, including Japan, the United Kingdom and Canada, Forbes reported.

The CDC currently lists Influenza A H3N2 as the cause of most flu cases in the United States. The extent of the spread of the subclade K mutation in the United States is unknown because the agency didn’t do any tracking for its FluView report during the recent government shutdown.

The latest data from the CDC, last updated on Nov. 19, shows that acute respiratory illness rates overall are low.

According to the Maryland Department of Health, the number of emergency department visits for COVID-19 remain very low and continue to be low for influenza and RSV. For the week of Nov. 15, the hospitalization rate for all three illnesses was at 0.9, a tiny increase from 0.7 the previous week, the state health department reported.

The 7-day moving average case rate per 100,000 people for COVID=19 has declined since a short spike was recorded on Sept. 15.

Out of 7,170 specimens tested as of Nov. 15 for influenza, only 7.25% tested positive and 70% of those positive cases were for Type A influenza, according to the Maryland Department of Health. So far, there have been 119 hospitalizations linked to the flu in Maryland.

RSV has affected Wicomico County the most in Maryland at 9.54% of the total hospitalization cases, followd by Washington County at 6.42% and Somerset County at 4.01%. But according to data from the state health department, this year's case rate for RSV is down drastically from previous four years.

Nationwide, acute respiratory illnesses remain at low or very low levels, according to the CDC; however, emergency room visits for RSV are increasing in many states in the South and Southeast. COVID-19 activity remains low, and seasonal flu activity is low nationally but increasing, according to the surveillance report.

Wastewater surveillance reports from state monitoring sites will provide a clearer picture of COVID, flu and RSV rates in Maryland when the data is updated Friday.

On Sept. 25, it showed low rates for all three illnesses.