Respiratory illness season is upon us. Here’s what you need to know

The return to school usually kicks off the unofficial start to respiratory illness season, and this year isn’t expected to be any different.

Experts have been closely monitoring countries like Australia – which is just emerging from winter in the Southern Hemisphere – in the hopes of gaining any insight into what this year’s respiratory season will look like here at home.

According to Jeffrey Pernica, the head of the division of Infectious Disease and an associate professor in the Department of Pediatrics at McMaster University, it is difficult to precisely forecast how bad any given respiratory season will be.

“Influenza in Australia this year exploded out of the gate. but then settled, so that the overall season was not dramatically worse than it had been in previous years. As a result, it may be that we in Canada will have a typical influenza year as well,” he says.

According to Pernica, last year was one of the worst respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) seasons many pediatricians had ever encountered. It’s unclear exactly why it was so bad, but Pernica says pandemic-related restrictions likely meant there was a larger pool of children who had never encountered the virus before. This larger number of children with less exposure to RSV meant that it was easier for more children to become ill with the virus all at once –significantly impacting the health-care system.

“I think there’s a fair probability that RSV will not be as bad as last year, given how many children came down with RSV. But it also seems likely that we will have RSV, influenza and possibly a new Omicron variant surge at the same time. So even if this fall/winter is not worse than last year, it may still be difficult.”

The new COVID-19 variant that has been the focus of experts and media coverage is the highly mutated BA.2.86, though work is still underway to properly understand it. In its most recent monitoring report for the week ending on Aug. 26, the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) noted a continued increase in the number of lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19 across the country.

PHAC is also tracking heightened activity of enterovirus and rhinovirus but noted that infections remain below expected levels for this time of year.

With the spectre of a few difficult months looming, Pernica says it’s important to stay home if you’re feeling sick, wash your hands frequently and to make sure you are up to date with vaccinations.

“If somebody is feeling that they have a viral respiratory illness, especially if you have a fever, that would be a good day to stay at home to slow the spread of respiratory viruses.”