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"The common cold" has been around forever. But it's been attributed primarily to a coronavirus (not THE coronavirus). Most people are exposed to RSV at some point or another in their lives, and most of them, when they have symptoms at all, just assume they have "a cold." But "a cold" isn't a medical diagnosis. It's a collection of symptoms, which can be caused by any number of actual diagnosable illnesses. RSV is one of them. RSV can also present as much more severe symptoms, or even become bronchopneumonia. That's when it becomes potentially deadly to infants, the elderly, and immuno-compromised adults and children.
Our planet is much different now than it was in the 1950's (when RSV was first identified and named). There's more pollution, more obesity, more stress, more filtered-air buildings that create what's known as "sick building syndrome." There are also more people, more unhealthy foods, more fad diets, more people working more hours to pay more bills (remember there were no cell phones or internet or even call-waiting in the 1950's, and most households had one car and no TV or - one black and white console TV).
As people overcome the lower mortality rate in the 1950's, and live more years now than before, we discover that more things can now kill us, that couldn't before, because we simply hadn't lived long enough to be affected by them. RSV is one of those things. What most people got over (and still get over) in a week, when they're 40 years old, can kill them when they're 70 and their immune system has taken a nose-dive simply because it's old.
So we now have more people living longer in a dirtier, less healthy environment, and are getting sicker with things that we didn't live long enough to get sick from in the 1950's.
Yeah I understand those reasons why it was never a thing before, everything was just a cold, but I think if Covid hadn't come along RSV still wouldn't be a thing. But the main point was it doesn't confer long-term immunity. You can get RSV today and again 2 months from now, though it may be less severe when caught in rapid succession like that.
UPDATE: At the two week mark, only some morning crud in the head and chest to clear out, but otherwise normal. The wheezing and rhonchi were new, though, so a little alarming. I'm probably just getting old!
I posted in the "Yay the holiday cold" thread that Mucinex (Guaifenesin) knocked all the crap out of my lungs wonderfully. My aunt (former nurse) recommends this for preventing chest colds from turning into pneumonia. We used it during the covid years as well. Works like a charm.
This cold/flu/rsv whatever appears to be the same thing spreading around since before the holiday season.
Excellent answer...One goes to the doc when sick in a way they haven't experienced before, when it's getting worse &/or lasting an unusually long time.
Re: RSV vax-- They came up with a cure, now they need a disease for it to go with. Gotta re-coup those research expenses. and causing fear among the naive is the easy way.... Most every kid gets RSV (usually passed off as a common cold) by the time they're 6 and survive, then we remain immune for a lifetime...If they didn't survive, they had an inadequate immune system and were doomed anyway. If it wasn't the RSV, it would have been some other common infection.
My granddaughter contracted RSV at a month old in 2007, and was hospitalized. Never heard of it before then. I searched and learned it was a "childs" illness. Now all of a sudden there is a vaccine for it for adults. I so agree with your statement above. What is it now, half dozen vaccines being "sold" to the retired generation? These on top of all the medications so many are taking now in "old age".......
My granddaughter contracted RSV at a month old in 2007, and was hospitalized. Never heard of it before then. I searched and learned it was a "childs" illness. Now all of a sudden there is a vaccine for it for adults. I so agree with your statement above. What is it now, half dozen vaccines being "sold" to the retired generation? These on top of all the medications so many are taking now in "old age".......
No one had ever heard of mesothelioma until the 1960's, when it was discovered that asbestos was linked with that type of cancer. And yet - hundreds of people who worked with asbestos, or had broken asbestos shingles outside their homes, died from it.
Science is an ongoing process. What we don't know today, we might discover tomorrow. What we didn't know a year ago, we know now.
RSV was affecting older people, but they weren't tested for RSV. They were tested for the illnesses that RSV causes. Older people who died from pneumonia, probably had RSV and no one knew it. Now we know. It's very common. Most people are exposed to it, many people end up getting sick because of it, and some of them die from those sicknesses that RSV causes. RSV in and of itself is not deadly. But it CAUSES deadly illnesses. The RSV vaccine helps your immune system fight RSV so that it might make you feel like you have a cold, or the Flu, but won't cause you to die of pneumonia.
Go to urgent care! this sounds like Pneumonia. I was sick from Jan 1st till January 5th with something similar. Luckily my lungs were clear. Went to urgent care and they gave me a cough syrup. It did nothing. Went to my regular doctor 2 days later and I was given Prednisone and an antibiotic. I have never felt so sick in many years. you should get tested for Flu and covid too. Thanks to the new meds I feel like a new person. The only thing that remains is a slight cough and my voice is slightly hoarse.
It started 10 days ago with an URI. Sore throat, sniffles, low-grade fever - the usual - but also chest pain I thought might be a heart attack. That lasted a couple of days off and on, then went away. Fever resolved, other symptoms are gone, but now I have both wheezing and rhonchi (rattling) in the lower bronchial tract I can hear especially when lying down at night. Every now and then I cough up some mucous (clear), but it seems lower than that and well entrenched. I've been patiently waiting for this to resolve, but it hasn't yet.
My doctor's office, which used to take walk-ins and work in same-day visits, is now under new management and never has an opening unless you book six months in advance. They simply tell you to go to the ER, which I certainly don't want to. I basically never go to the doctor, and I always eventually get over whatever it is.
What does this sound like, how serious could it be, and what should I do?
There are a plethora of pathogens (mostly viruses) that could be the cause of some of your symptoms. Some of these viruses we know and have names for. Others we don’t. Symptoms from one virus are rarely identical in two different individuals and many different viruses cause more or less those same symptoms.
So long story short, without a laboratory test identifying it, there is no way to “identify” this. I’m guessing your symptoms were bizarre/novel enough for you to ask. Well, your immune system might be different, nutrition/sleep/stress etc so your body responded differently to a previous virus.
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