Tripledemic fills Portland urgent care facilities

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — It’s not just local hospitals seeing a surge of patients sick with RSV.

Urgent care centers are getting thousands of patients in their doors looking for testing and treatment. Many patients that show up to urgent care have the flu.

With RSV, flu and COVID having somewhat similar symptoms many sick people are going in for testing to find out what they have, and whether there is any medication they can take to fight the virus.

“With everyone traveling for the holidays … we are seeing a definite surge in cases,” said Dr. Andrew Miller, AFC Urgent Care Chief Medical Officer.

People can test at home for COVID, but clinics can test for other viruses like flu and viral pneumonia, as well as RSV, which can also cause problems for older adults, not just infants.

OHSU’s medical data forecasting predicts RSV cases to peak statewide in the near future, but dozens are still in the hospital critically ill and being treated.

The surge in urgent care visits for respiratory sickness could be from people not being able to get an appointment quickly at their doctor’s office, and not going to the emergency room unless it really is an emergency.

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