Roanoke, VA – ROANOKE, Va. — Welcome to this week’s rendition of What’s Going Around? Thanks to our partnership with John’s Hopkins University, we can visualize current disease activity in our area, and forecast what could come next.
In Roanoke and surrounding counties, emergency department visits for COVID-19, influenza and respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, have all declined since last week. COVID-19 is at very low levels, while influenza and RSV are at low levels.
Officials are seeing the same pattern across Virginia, with all three viruses continuing to trend downward, according to Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Center for Health Security.
Pulaski County, Giles County, Montgomery County, the city of Radford and Wythe County continue to report high levels of RSV-related emergency department visits as of April 17. COVID-19 and influenza remain low across those areas.
What to know about tick season
Ticks are most active from March through October, when people also tend to spend more time outdoors. Ticks are present throughout the Blue Ridge Health District and are commonly found in wooded areas, brushy fields, along trails and around homes, according to the Virginia Department of Health.
Ticks can spread diseases including Lyme disease, Rocky Mountain spotted fever and ehrlichiosis. The CDC recorded Virginia as one of the top 10 states with the highest number of tick-borne illness cases in 2023.
As of April 19, the Northeast has recorded 35 emergency department visits for tick bite incidents, the most of any region in the country so far this year. That region includes Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia and West Virginia.
Using insect repellent on skin and clothing, especially near the ankles, is one of the best ways to protect against tick bites. Because ticks can take up to 24 hours to transmit disease, checking for ticks daily after spending time in tall grass or brush can significantly reduce the risk of infection.
How Virginia compares nationally
The number of acute respiratory illnesses prompting people to seek medical care continues to remain very low nationally.
RSV activity is elevated but has peaked in most regions of the country. COVID-19 activity remains low in most areas of the country, according to the CDC.