Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital has seen an uptick in the number of influenza and COVID patients over recent months. Health professionals encourage the use of masks and common-sense handwashing.
Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital has seen an uptick in the number of influenza and COVID patients over recent months. Health professionals encourage the use of masks and common-sense handwashing.
The “Tripledemic”—the triad of illnesses that includes COVID, influenza and respiratory syncytial virus—is sweeping its way across California, and having no mercy on Nevada County.
“(Tripledemic) sounds like a cool name but it’s not so cool when you look at the facts,” said Dr. Tyler Hill, Chief Medical Officer at Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital. “It’s a continued drain on the United States and California in particular. The fact is that the effects of the pandemic continue to rage on.”
Dr. Hill went on to say that the uniqueness of the illnesses currently going around is that they were all but absent the past couple years, as the world battled the COVID virus.
“Some of the big culprits we used to see pre-COVID were influenza and RSV,” Hill said. “RSV is a respiratory virus that affects typically the really young kids—a few months old to a few years old. We saw a rapid rise in RSV over the last two months and that was kind of the beginning of the Tripledemic.
“RSV really kicked off this surge nationwide and we saw it overwhelm the pediatric hospitals across the country. And what that does for a more rural area is that it creates a challenge where if we have a pediatric patient come here who needs to be hospitalized in a pediatric facility it creates the issue of trying to get them there when the facility is already overwhelmed and then they have to stay here for a while.”
Signage at Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital in Grass Valley directs visitors to the correct locations.
Hill said that as a hospital, Sierra Nevada created an RSV Surge Plan ahead of the curve. Hospital staff, he continued, saw a wave of the illness affecting the state, bringing them together to strategically plan and be prepared in the event they have to hospitalize RSV patients there. He added that though they have seen a decline in RSV cases in recent weeks, pediatric hospitals throughout the region are struggling to keep up.
“We didn’t really see much influenza since 2019,” Hill said. “And really with masking, with social distancing, with people not at school or work as frequently, and people not congregating as often we saw a reduction in influenza cases.
“However, now in 2022 influenza has hit hard. It has hit the entire country hard. We saw Southern California overwhelmed very quickly; hospitals well over capacity and you saw it migrate north to even this area. Really, post-Thanksgiving Nevada County and our hospital has been significantly impacted. It’s pretty much all influenza-A and the strain is H3N2 so most of what our (emergency department) is seeing right now is a lot of influenza, outpacing the number of COVID cases we are seeing coming into the ED.
“With influenza, there’s been less amount of people who have received the vaccine this year. We’ve seen that negatively impact a lot of people.”
The doctor said that the flu vaccine isn’t so much about preventing the flu as it is to reduce the severity of the illness and keep patients out of the hospital. He also said that it seems many people are “over” vaccinations after being inundated with them for the past few years. This presents a challenge to medical professionals.
“We do see hospitalizations as a result of influenza, with effects on the kidneys, pneumonia, diarrhea, dehydration. Those who are often most vulnerable will be come very ill as a result. We’ve had as many as 10+ influenza patients admitted to the hospital, mostly following the Thanksgiving break. Between that and COVID nearly half of our medical beds were what we call isolation cases. That makes it very challenging for multiple reasons.”
Upticks in the tripledemic of influenza, covid, and RSV, are weighing on the services provided at Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital.
It should be noted, Hill said, that it is absolutely possible to carry all three components of the Tripledemic at once, though it is fairly uncommon especially considering RSV is more prevalent in children. Additionally, he was clear in saying that repetitiveness—contracting one illness more than once in a season—is also uncommon.
“(Repetitiveness) wouldn’t be as common as with COVID. We see rebound COVID. Typically you are going to get it and be done with it for the season.”
Sierra Nevada’s CMO wants the public to know that if they are experiencing an emergency, the hospital’s emergency department is there for you; they want to take care of you. However, “If you want to get tested or if you don’t feel like you need to come to the emergency department I would highly urge that if you have a doctor, call them. Primary care clinics do have openings. There are testing sites across the county where you can go and get tested. There is capacity to be seen outside the emergency department.”
Dr. Hill urges the community to get vaccinated for both COVID and influenza. He noted that the website for the Center for Disease Control and Prevention offers many resources and copious amounts of information.
Wearing a mask, he said, is a powerful way to combat illness.
“It’s why we didn’t see a lot of these viruses for several years. So masking is very important on multiple levels—for protecting yourself and others.”
Cloth masks, he said, work better than nothing. Surgical masks are better yet, as are the KN95 variety.
“The best would be the N95, the one that kind of rubs your nose raw and are uncomfortable to wear for multiple hours at a time. Those are the best.
“The best thing right now is if you are going to be indoors, especially in public, restaurants, shopping, family gatherings, we would say definitely mask up. We’ve been doing this for two years now. People aren’t going to look at you like you have a significant disease or you’re an alien. That’s the best way to prevent things in the moment.”
Continue washing your hands, Hill said, practice coughing into your arm or a tissue, and most importantly: “If you have a runny nose, sneezing, coughing, headache, just stay home. It’s really the best thing.”
Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital in Grass Valley.
To contact Staff Writer Jennifer Nobles email jnobles@theunion.com, or call 530-477-4232.
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