RSV and COVID: What are the differences between the two viruses?

Two viruses are surging right now in central Ohio and they often look very similar: COVID-19 and RSV.

RSV, which stands for respiratory syncytial virus, is a seasonal illness that usually pops up in fall and winter. But widespread masking and social distancing for COVID-19 was relaxed this summer and has led to an early rise in RSV locally, doctors at Nationwide Children's Hospital have reported.

The symptoms of RSV are similar to that of a common cold, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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They can include a runny nose, decrease in appetite, coughing, sneezing, fever and wheezing, which often go away on their own within a few weeks. Treatment for RSV can include acetaminophen or ibuprofen.

COVID-19 symptoms include many of the same ones people develop with RSV, but a loss of taste or smell, a sore throat, body aches and sometimes diarrhea are more common in people with COVID, according to the CDC.

RSV typically affects children more harshly than adults and can be particularly dangerous to infants, according to the CDC. COVID-19 on the other hand is considered more dangerous to older adults.

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RSV usually kills between 100 and 500 children under the age of 5 in the United States every year, according to the CDC. By comparison, COVID killed 179 kids in 2020 and has so far killed 246 children in the U.S. in 2021, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.

In Ohio, eight children have died of COVID-19 while 20,858 adults have been killed by the disease, according to the Ohio Department of Health.

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While there are three COVID-19 vaccines on the market right now, there are none for RSV.

But a lot of progress has been made on the development of RSV vaccines in the last 10 years, Dr. Octavio Ramilo, chief of infectious diseases at Nationwide Children's said during a Monday press briefing.

One way to give newborns protection from RSV may be to vaccinate an expectant mother for the virus so that she passes on protective RSV antibodies to her baby, Ramilo said. If all goes well with trials going on now, Ramilo predicted the maternal RSV vaccines could be available within the next two years.

"This is extremely exciting because roughly for the first time in four years, as pediatricians we will have a new tool," Ramilo said.

mfilby@dispatch.com

@MaxFilby