Johns Hopkins professors urge vaccinations with concern about rise of infectious diseases
BALTIMORE - Cooler temperatures are approaching, and with it, medical experts are expecting an uptick in infectious diseases, including RSV, Mpox, avian flu, parvovirus, COVID-19 and the flu.
Doctors say influenza cases start rising in November, while RSV cases may also start appearing soon, primarily in children and individuals over the age of 65. Plus, COVID-19 is still not finished.
"For COVID-19, we just saw a summer that had a rather large surge of cases, and in the past few years, we have seen summer surges of COVID," said Professor Andrew Pekosz, the vice chair of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. "This one was a bit larger than what we would've expected."
"The vaccines are safe"
Johns Hopkins professors offered tips on how to be protected from these viruses, which includes vaccinations.
"People want to sort of forget about COVID-19 because they feel the worst of it is over, but this is an important reminder that we now have the tools to limit the number of cases, and in particular, the number of severe cases," Pekosz said.
Parvovirus is another infectious disease to be aware of and informed about.
"In general, it's a pretty mild disease and people recover just fine," said Kari Debbink, an associate professor of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology at Johns Hopkins. "However, in the last year, we have seen a large increase in the cases of parvovirus."
The Hopkins professors are adamant that vaccinations are safe and crucial to protection from serious respiratory infections.
"We really need to do a better job of communicating that need to the general public," Pekosz said. "We know the vaccines are safe. The safety record is a mile long."
