Covid decline may be giving rise to other viruses like flu, TB: Report

Washington : Even as global cases of Covid-19 are on the decline, a number of other viruses such as influenza, respiratory syncytial virus, adenovirus, tuberculosis, and monkeypox are on the rise, and have also exhibited strange behaviours in recent months, according to a media report.
Health experts state that reduced exposure due to Covid restrictions may have lowered immunity to infectious diseases, making people more vulnerable to new outbreaks, CNBC reported. The report noted that during Covid the diseases caused by these viruses were subdued.
Flu during winters of 2020 and 2021 in the US was one of the mildest on record both in terms of deaths and hospitalisations. But as Covid abated and restrictions were removed, the virus-led diseases began ticking upward beginning February and extending well into summers.
“We’ve never seen a flu season in the US extend into June,” Dr. Scott Roberts, associate medical director for infection prevention at Yale New Haven Hospital, was quoted as saying.
“Covid has clearly had a very big impact on that. Now that people have unmasked, places are opening up, we’re seeing viruses behave in very odd ways that they weren’t before,” he added.
Respiratory syncytial virus, a cold-like virus common during winter months, exhibited an uptick last summer, with cases surging among children in Europe, the US and Japan.