Explainer: The status of infectious diseases during this holiday season

What to know about infectious diseases during this holiday season As friends and family visit, so too do their viruses. What's trending and where? And how can you protect yourself? The Times speaks with Peter Chin-Hong, a UCSF infectious disease doctor. Los Angeles Times

Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease specialist at UC San Francisco, said people should be on the lookout for the “Big Four”: three respiratory viruses currently moving through the U.S. — influenza, COVID-19 and RSV — and one stomach virus — norovirus. ...

In the UK, there were nearly four times the number of flu cases in early December than they were the same time last year. A similar trend occurred during the winter season in the South American nations of Chile, Ecuador and Uruguay, where hospitalizations were higher than in the 2023 flu season. Elsewhere on the southern continent, seasonal flu rates were fairly typical. ...

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