Massachusetts Respiratory Illness Dashboard, CLICK HERE. —- Covid 19 Data Dashboard, CLICK HERE —- Influenza Dashboard, CLICK HERE.
Massachusetts Launches Respiratory Illness Dashboard
Acute Respiratory Disease currently represents about 10% of all emergency room visits. Back in July, it represented about 8% of all emergency room visits. Based on past year’s data, the trend is down. A year ago, in October 2022, 15% of ER visits were related to acute respiratory disease, by the end of December last year, it was almost 24%, falling to 14% by the end of January 2023, and back under 10 percent by the end of June 2023.
From the State of MA, “The viral respiratory illness dashboards will streamline the previous weekly flu reports, which DPH has produced for many years during flu season, and the COVID-19 data updates, which DPH has provided daily and weekly since the early days of the pandemic in March 2020. COVID-19, flu, and RSV are the three viruses that are more likely to cause severe disease resulting in hospitalization and sometimes death.
State of MA on new dashboards: “The new dashboards build on our ongoing commitment to sharing comprehensive public data reports and align with increased recognition of the need to share data on viral respiratory diseases more broadly as illustrated by last year’s COVID-19, flu, and RSV ‘tripledemic,’” said State Epidemiologist Dr. Catherine Brown. “Our goals are to focus on metrics that are useful at this time for public health action and for individuals to make informed decisions about their choice of activity and use of prevention tools.”
Where we Were:
During the week of April 5, 2020, more than 1/3 of the 9,327 hospital admissions were for acute respiratory disease. More than half were Covid-19 related. In January 2022, over 20 percent of hospital admissions were related to Covid 19 with that falling to under 9 percent by the end of last year. Currently, only 3% of hospital admissions are related to Covid-19, but a total of about 13% are related to acute respiratory disease. This explains why the State of Massachusetts has chosen to make this additional information available to the public.
What is Acute Respiratory Disease?
The online dashboard specifically tracks Covid-19, influenza (the flu) and RSV. However, here’s a complete list of respiratory diseases from the CDC.
What is Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome?
This is a serious condition requiring immediate medical attention. According to the American Lung Association, “Patients with ARDS are short of breath, often to a distressing level. They are breathing faster and their heart is beating faster. They may have pain as they try to take a breath. As the oxygen in the blood falls, their fingernails and lips may have a bluish color. “ More information from Lung.org