COVID-19 cases rising among teens and young adults
Dr. Mark Sperry
Zach Frailey/For the Observer-Reporter
Zach Frailey/For the Observer-Reporter
Alison Daniels, a senior communications major, receives her first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine at a free clinic at California University’s Convocation Center last month.
COVID-19 cases are on the rise among teenagers and young adults, and local doctors are seeing in increase in hospitalizations and complications.
Centers for Disease Control data of Pennsylvania COVID-19 cases shows an increase among adults 20 to 24, followed by teens aged 15 to 19, and a decrease in the number of 65 and older adults getting cases.
“There has been a definite shift across the country, with younger people now making up a greater percentage of new cases,” said Dr. Mark Sperry, a pulmonologist at Washington Health System.
Almost 90,000 people in Washington County and 12,000 people in Greene County, are either fully or partially vaccinated, and the vast majority of those vaccinated are over the age of 65; in Fayette County, nearly 38,000 are fully vaccinated while more than 11,755 are partially vaccinated.
At WHS Washington Hospital, most hospitalized patients are under 65 years old – a clear change from last year.
WVU Medicine – Uniontown Hospital President and CEO Dr. David Hess said there has been an uptick in young adults across the country and in Western Pennsylvania.
“Thankfully, the majority of them have not required medical care at our facility,” Hess said, noting COVID-19 hospitalizations at Uniontown throughout the pandemic have primarily been among the older population.
While most young adults tend to do fairly well with the virus, Sperry said doctors are seeing patients in their 20s and 30s hospitalized for long periods of time and battling complications including severe lung injury.
Sperry believes there are a few reasons for this.
Among them is the increase in the number of young adults who are returning to their social routines, and gathering in schools, colleges, bars and restaurants, leading to more infection.
Another is the increase variants, including the B.1.1.7 variant (currently the most dominant strain in the U.S., it originated in the United Kingdom and has been found in all 50 states), the P1 variant out of Brazil, and the South African variant B.1.351.
Mutations of the virus can make them more likely to cause infection, can make the infection more severe, and can possibly evade current vaccines. The more the virus spreads the more likely it is to mutate and form a new variant.
“For this reason, it is vitally important that we continue to do all that we can to limit infection including wearing masks, practicing social distancing, and receiving a COVID vaccine as soon as possible,” said Sperry.
At WHS, some younger patients have required supplemental oxygen for a prolonged period of time and haven’t been able to return to their normal activities for weeks or months.
Younger patients who haven’t been hospitalized are battling persistent fatigue, prolonged and severe cough, and loss of taste and smell. More worrisome, Sperry said, are young adults experiencing blood clots, a relatively frequent problem.
“We have seen young adults in our clinic with complaints of persistent fatigue, decreased ability to exercise, and so-called ‘brain fog,’ which can last for months,” Sperry said. “Unfortunately, there is no real treatment for these symptoms. According to studies, young adults experience the prolonged symptoms less than 10% of the time, but with the new variants this might occur more frequently.”
Sperry encourages people 16 years old and older to get vaccinated.
The vaccine has been nearly 100% effective in preventing death from the virus, according to the CDC, and Sperry said WHS has seen very few hospitalizations in patients who are fully vaccinated.
“I highly recommend that everyone who is eligible for the vaccine get the vaccine,” said Sperry. “Over 210 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered around the country. We have seen that the vaccines are very effective and significant side effects have been extremely rare.”
Sperry said getting vaccinated protects patients from potentially severe illness and death, slows the spread in the community, and decreases the chance that mutations form in the virus that can lead to more severe variants.
“The faster that we can get the community vaccinated, the faster we can return to normal life,” said Sperry.
Hess echoed those thoughts.
“It remains imperative, even as more and more people become vaccinated, for everyone to be good neighbors and good community stewards by continuing to follow commonsense methods to prevent the spread of coronavirus and move us that much closer to normal,” said Hess.