What is RSV? Here’s what to know about the virus as cases surge in Canada
Global News
Canada is reporting an increase in respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) activity that is "above-expected levels for this time of year," according to the Health Canada website.
Canada is reporting an increase in respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) activity that is “above-expected levels for this time of year” — leading to a surge of cases in ERs and hospitals across the country.
According to the Canadian Pediatric Society (CPS), respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) “is the most common virus that can infect the lungs and breathing tubes.” The infection is “most serious in young babies.”
The Health Canada website states that the federal positivity rate for RSV currently stands at 3.5 per cent, although that data is a week behind and covers the week ending Oct. 15.
Thanks to masking, distancing and hand-washing, Canada recorded just 239 cases of RSV between Aug. 2020 and May 2021, compared with nearly 19,000 in 2019, Global News reported previously. This year, the number stands at 486.
Montreal and Quebec City have the highest positivity rate so far compared to the rest of the country, standing at 15 per cent.
The national figures show a positivity rate of two per cent in Ontario and 3.4 per cent in Atlantic Canada. The lowest rates were reported in British Columbia (1.4 per cent), one per cent on the Prairies and two per cent in the Northwest Territories.
The virus, which typically emerges a little bit later in the fall and winter seasons, is taking off earlier than usual this year as reflected in testing that is no longer focused on COVID-19 and loosened public health measures, says Dr. Donald Vinh, an infectious diseases specialist at McGill University Health Centre.
“In the last two years…the testing policy was focused on COVID-19, so obviously we lost track a little bit of what was going on with the other viruses,” Vinh told Global News.