Sneezing, fever, chills, vomiting, coughing — it’s not just one virus wreaking havoc this winter; it’s a combination of four major illnesses: influenza, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), COVID 19 and norovirus.
In the United States, some health experts are referring to the simultaneous spread of these four viruses as a “quademic.”
But is the same spread happening in Canada?
“I think we are experiencing something very similar,” said Matthew Miller, the director of the Michael G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ont.
“Our low COVID levels are still as high as many of the other viruses which are, nearing peak. For RSV it looks like we’ve reached that peak already, and for influenza A, cases are still shooting up,” he told Global News.
Story continues below advertisement
While cases of these three respiratory illnesses are high in Canada, there’s another virus on the rise as well: norovirus…