New Haven Health

Respiratory Illnesses

Respiratory illnesses affect the lungs and airways. Anyone can get a respiratory illness, but there are ways to protect yourself from infection. Learn about the preventative measures you can take to avoid respiratory illnesses.

ⓘ March Update

Updated CDC Guidelines for all respiratory illnesses (COVID-19, flu, RSV, and others):

If you are sick, stay home and away from others.

You can go back to your normal activities when, for at least 24 hours, both are true:

  • Your symptoms are getting better overall, and
  • You have not had a fever (and are not using fever-reducing medication)

The CDC recommends staying up to date with immunizations to protect yourself and others.

Influenza (Flu)

Flu is a common illness caused by influenza viruses that infect the nose, throat, and sometimes the lungs. It can cause mild to severe illness, and at times can lead to death. The best way to prevent flu is by getting a flu vaccine each year.

How Influenza Spreads

On average, around 1 in 12 people get flu each season in the US. Flu spreads when:
  1. People with flu cough, sneeze, or talk, and tiny droplets leave their mouth and nose
  2. People nearby breathe in the tiny droplets, or touch the tiny droplets on objects or surfaces and then touch their faces
  3. The people who breathe in the tiny droplets get infected with flu

People can spread flu before they even know they are sick, as well as when they are sick with symptoms. The time between being infected and showing symptoms is between one and four days.

How to Avoid Influenza

Anyone can get flu, and it can lead to serious medical conditions and complications like pneumonia, ear infections, sinus infections, and worsening of medical conditions you may already have. The best ways to avoid flu are getting vaccinated, wearing a mask in public, and staying away from sick people.

You can avoid catching and spreading flu by:

  • Getting a yearly flu vaccine
  • Wearing a mask in public to protect your mouth and nose
  • Staying home when you are sick, even if you don’t have COVID-19
  • Avoiding close contact with sick people
  • Washing your hands often
  • Covering your coughs and sneezes
  • Cleaning and disinfecting surfaces
  • Avoiding touching your face with unwashed hands

COVID-19

COVID-19 is a very contagious disease caused by a virus. Symptoms of COVID-19 can feel like a cold, flu, or pneumonia, but it may also affect other parts of the body. It can cause severe illness and have extreme effects even after the disease has passed. Over a million people have died from COVID-19 in the United States.

Vaccines against COVID-19 are safe and effective. Anyone over the age of 6 months should get the updated 2023-2024 vaccine released in September 2023.

How COVID-19 Spreads

There have been over 100,000,000 cases of COVID-19 in the US since 2020. COVID-19 spreads when:

  1. People with COVID-19 cough, sneeze, or talk, and tiny droplets leave their mouth and nose
  2. People nearby breathe in the tiny droplets, or touch the tiny droplets on objects or surfaces and then touch their faces
  3. The people who breathe in the tiny droplets get infected with COVID-19

 

Anyone infected with COVID-19 can spread it, even if they do NOT have symptoms. COVID-19 spreads very quickly.

How to Avoid COVID-19

Anyone can get COVID-19, and it can lead to very serious complications. Over one million people have died of COVID-19 in the US since 2020, and many others have developed Long COVID even after minor or no symptoms when they had COVID-19.

The best way to avoid COVID-19 is staying up-to-date with vaccines. Anyone over the age of 6 months should get the updated 2023-2024 vaccine released in September 2023.

You can avoid catching and spreading COVID-19 by:

Request Free At-Home COVID-19 Tests

At-home test kits are available at the New Haven Health Department. To request them, call 203-946-6999, email [email protected], or visit our office at 424 Chapel St between 9am and 5pm Monday-Friday.

NOTE: Before you throw out old tests, check the FDA’s website to see if your COVID-19 tests’ expiration dates have been extended.

COVID-19 Resources

Request a vaccination record for yourself or your legal dependent at the CT WIZ public portal:

Report a positive case of COVID-19 in a business, organization, daycare, or long-term care facility (LTCF):

Report a positive case of COVID-19 in New Haven Public Schools (NHPS):

Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV)

Respiratory Syncytial Virus, or RSV, is a common virus that affects the lungs and breathing passages. RSV can be serious, especially for infants and older adults. Most children have had it at least once by age 2. 

RSV usually causes the same symptoms as a bad cold, such as a cough, stuffy/runny nose, sore throat, earache, and fever. Babies with RSV may also have no energy and less appetite than usual, and wheeze or have difficulty breathing.

How RSV Spreads

A virus causes RSV infection. Like the flu virus, RSV affects your nose, eyes, throat, and lungs. It spreads like a cold too – when you cough, sneeze, or share food or drinks or touch infected surfaces.

People can spread RSV before they start showing signs of being sick, and can continue to spread it for as long as four weeks after they stop showing symptoms.

How to Avoid RSV

Doctors can provide new immunizations to protect infants, toddlers, and adults 60 years and older from RSV. 

Other ways to protect yourself and your family from catching and spreading RSV are staying home when sick, avoiding sick people, washing your hands, covering coughs and sneezes, and cleaning surfaces in your home.

Reach out to your child’s doctor or pediatrician if they have RSV symptoms.

Tuberculosis (TB)

Tuberculosis (TB) is caused by a bacterium. The bacteria usually affect the lungs, but they can impact any part of the body. 

There are two tuberculosis-related conditions: 

  • Latent TB infection (LTBI): when someone is infected with TB bacteria, but does not become sick
  • TB disease: when someone does become sick, which can be fatal if not treated properly

How Tuberculosis Spreads

Tuberculosis spreads when:
  1. People with TB disease cough, sneeze, or talk, and tiny droplets full of TB bacteria leave their mouth and nose
  2. People nearby breathe in the tiny droplets
  3. The people who breathe in the tiny droplets get infected with TB bacteria

Tuberculosis only spreads this way when someone has TB disease in the lungs or throat. TB in other parts of the body is usually not infectious.

TB is NOT spread by shaking hands, sharing food or drink, sharing toothbrushes, touching bed linens or toilet seats, or kissing.

People with TB disease are most likely to spread it to people they spend time with every day. This includes family members, friends, and coworkers or schoolmates.

What to Do if You Are Exposed to TB

If you think you have been exposed to someone with TB disease, contact your doctor or the NHV Health Department about getting tested.

Remember that if you were exposed to TB bacteria, you are not able to spread the bacteria to other people right away. Only people with active TB disease can spread TB bacteria to others. 

Some people develop TB disease within weeks of becoming infected, while other people may get sick years later. Many people with TB infection never develop TB disease.

Common Cold

The common cold is a minor infection that affects the nose and throat. There are over 200 different viruses that can cause the common cold. Colds usually have minor symptoms and get better within a week, but they can have bad side-effects, like sinus infections.

Colds are very easy to spread, but there are ways to avoid catching them.

How Colds Spread

In the US, adults get an average of two to four colds per year, and young children get an average of six to eight colds per year. Colds spread when:
  1. Infected people cough, sneeze, or talk, and tiny droplets leave their mouth and nose
  2. People nearby breathe in the tiny droplets, or touch the tiny droplets on objects or surfaces and then touch their faces
  3. The people who breathe in the tiny droplets get infected with a cold

People can spread flu before they even know they are sick, as well as when they are sick with symptoms. The time between being infected and showing symptoms is between one and four days.

How to Avoid Colds

There are easy ways to avoid catching and spreading colds. Some of the strategies to protect yourself and others are very similar to the ways you can avoid COVID-19 and flu. Remember that even if symptoms are mild for you, they can be much worse for someone else.

You can avoid catching and spreading colds by:

  • Washing your hands for at least 20 seconds or using hand sanitizer
  • Wearing a mask in public to protect your mouth and nose
  • Staying home when you are sick, even if you don’t have COVID-19
  • Avoiding close contact with sick people
  • Covering your coughs and sneezes
  • Cleaning and disinfecting surfaces
  • Avoiding touching your face with unwashed hands

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