Just as the new COVID boosters become available, the Berrien County Health Department is seeing a spike in respiratory illnesses in the area.

Health department epidemiologist Sara Palmer tells us the latest numbers are showing COVID, in particular, has jumped in recent weeks. Although hospitals are no longer required to report COVID cases, Palmer says county health officials have seen the trend themselves.

“We can say we’ve seen a 30% increase in emergency department urgent care visits due to respiratory complaints throughout the month of August,” Palmer said. “From our surveillance of COVID-19 test results, we’ve seen a 23% increase in COVID in just the last two weeks.”

Palmer says flu cases are down, but another troubling thing seen by the health department is a cluster of active tuberculosis cases. That’s opposed to latent TB cases, which are not contagious and don’t cause active illness.

“We do see a decent amount of latent tuberculosis, and then every year we see about an average of two active tuberculosis cases, and those are the ones we’re the most concerned about. Currently, we have a small cluster. It’s three cases related to each other.”

Palmer says the health department has tracked those three cases and investigated their close contacts. She doesn’t believe there’s a threat to the community. She says those at most risk of TB are people who have travelled overseas and people that work in hospitals, shelters, or nursing homes. TB is treatable, so she says it’s important for anyone with a latent case to see a doctor on a regular basis.

As for COVID, Palmer says people who are up to date on their vaccines have a much lower hospitalization rate with the illness than those who are not up to date. Those who haven’t been vaccinated at all do the worst.