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By Carol A. Sheridan, RN, MSN, CIC, Associate Director of Infection Prevention, Montefiore Medical Center  Manhattan Voice  November 29, 2024 Follow @x NEW YORK - Preparing for holiday gatherings and traveling can be stressful for many reasons and feeling ill during the holiday season can certainly ruin the festivities. One way to safeguard yourself and your family is to connect with your primary care doctor or nurse practitioner to get tailored advice, weighing your individual risk and the benefits of vaccination for illnesses like COVID, RSV and influenza. Each person has individual characteristics that can increase or decrease their likelihood of moderate to severe illness this viral season. Some factors that can impact your risk of getting severely ill from respiratory viruses are: * Your Age: 65 and older or under 2 years old. * Conditions that affect airways like asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease [COPD] ...

By Priya Nori, MD HEALTH - Doctors have been busy with RSV, a common virus that hits young children and people over 65 especially hard. Flu cases have been climbing earlier than usual, and COVID-19 infections continue to spread in our community. All of the above can create sneezing, congestion, sore throat and fever – so a lab test is the best way to determine the cause.  These symptoms can be truly exhausting – leading people to visit their doctor in hopes of getting a prescription for an antibiotic. We’ve come to think of these medicines as wonders for a quick cure – and they can be when they quickly resolve a difficult bacterial infection. When Antibiotics Cause Harm  While antibiotics can be helpful for bacterial infections, they do not kill viruses, which are the cause of the common cold, the flu, RSV, and COVID. When you have a virus, antibiotics will not work – and they can cause harm without benefits.  Common antibiotic side effects ...