With cold, flu, COVID and RSV season here, Cambridge doctor offers tips to stay healthy

As cooler weather approaches, most people know cold and flu season is close behind.

But this year, Dr. Mekalai Kumanan of Cambridge says people need to also be prepared that they could fall ill from COVID, with a new EG.5 Omicron subvariant circulating, and respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV.

Kumanan, who is president of the Ontario College of Family Physicians, joined CBC Kitchener-Waterloo's The Morning Edition to speak with host Craig Norris about what people should expect this winter and what they can do to stay healthy.

The following interview has been edited for length and clarity. The audio of the interview can be found at the bottom of this article.

Host Craig Norris: There is a new COVID variant circulating. How worried should we be about that?

Dr. Mekalai Kumanan: I think when we are approaching the fall, what we're expecting is to see a rise in respiratory infections in general. 

We know that we're already seeing that uptick in the latest variance of COVID, but we're also expecting that we're going to see some of the usual viruses that we tend to see at this time of year like influenza, RSV as well as some of the normal cough and cold viruses that we see. 

So family physicians across Ontario, as we always do, we are ready to support our patients to help them stay healthy and also to help them to manage if they do develop respiratory symptoms.

Norris: Is there a sense that with RSV and the flu and COVID that this could be a worse than usual or an unprecedented winter?

Kumanan: It's hard to say. We've seen over the past number of years that as we head into the fall, we tend to see that uptick especially as more people are heading indoors.

There are a number of things that we can do to try to prevent illness and stay healthy and we have a number of tips that we pulled together through the Ontario College of Family Physicians for people to learn about the best ways to stay healthy and prevent infection.

That's at: stayhealthyontario.ca.

Norris: Since we're not doing the same level of COVID testing as we once were, will we know how much of a problem COVID actually is this winter?

Kumanan: It would be important for those, particularly those people who are highest risk for severe complications from COVID, to really look at getting tested if they do become symptomatic.