BATON ROUGE — While most people are familiar with the flu and the common cold, what about RSV?
RSV stands for Respiratory Syncytial Virus. Along with the flu and Covid-19, the CDC is now grouping the three under the umbrella of respiratory illnesses.
While RSV isn’t necessarily anything new, Dr. Rubin Patel, founder and CEO of Patient Plus, said it has normally been seen in children and toddlers.
“RSV in the last couple of years was more heard of in children, like toddlers and even infants. It was more of an upper respiratory infection in the beginning, where you’d have a runny nose, congestion, and then eventually it would get into the lower respiratory tract, where you’d have wheezing, a cough, and shortness of breath,” Patel explained.
Patel said he’s now seen RSV having a severe impact on a different demographic — the elderly.
“Now we’re starting to see it more in older adults, mainly over 75, but also in adults who are 60 and older, who are immunocompromised — whether they have heart disease or lung disease,” Patel said.
(Watch the full video above for more information about RSV symptoms.)
RSV can also turn deadly if not treated quickly. The CDC estimates that as many as 21,000 Americans may have died from the illness between September 2024 through March 2025.
For anyone concerned that they may have been infected with RSV or any other form of respiratory illness, Patel said Patient Plus can check for a wide range of illnesses with just one combined test.
There are different ways to check for all of these (illnesses), and luckily for us here at Patient Plus, we can combine those tests into one, so you don’t have to get swabbed twice or three times,” Patel said.
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