Respiratory Virus Guidance

What to do when you’re sick:

When you have a respiratory virus infection, you can spread it to others. How long someone can spread the virus depends on different factors, including how sick they are (severity) and how long their illness lasts (duration). This is not the same for everyone. 

One of the most important things you can do to help prevent the spread of illness is to stay home when you have symptoms of a respiratory virus, such as a fever, cough, runny nose, or sore throat. You are less contagious once your symptoms improve overall and you have not had a fever for at least 24 hours (and are not using fever-reducing mediation). During this time, you may still be able to spread the virus to others. Taking precautions for the next 5 days can help reduce this risk. After 5 days, you are typically much less likely to be contagious. 

Individuals who have risk factors for severe illness should seek health care promptly for testing or treatment; treatment may help lower your risk of severe illness. 

Symptoms:

• Flu
• COVID-19
• RSV
   

Sick individuals should monitor their symptoms.

If there are emergency warning signs - like trouble breathing or chest pain - seek emergency medical care immediately.

Prevention Strategies:

When to use prevention strategies:

All of the prevention strategies described in this guidance can be helpful to reduce risk. They are helpful when:

• Respiratory viruses are causing a lot of illness in your community. 
  
  The Milwaukee Health Department’s Wastewater Disease Surveillance Dashboard provides an innovative tool for tracking COVID-19 trends in our community. Individuals with COVID-19 release the virus in their waste, which flows to wastewater treatment plants. Public health laboratories measure virus levels at specific collection sites to monitor changes in COVID-19 activity.

Explore the Wastewater Dashboard 

• You or the people around you were recently exposed to a respiratory virus, or are recovering.
   
• You or the people around you have risk factors for severe illness:
  Many factors can make it more likely for someone to become very sick from a respiratory virus. In addition to this guidance, there are several specific considerations for people with certain risk factors for severe illness:
• Young children 
• Older adults
• People with weakened immune systems
• People who are pregnant
• People with disabilities 
   
• You may not always know what might make others more vulnerable to serious illness. Following core prevention strategies provides a level of protection for everyone. When you’re unsure about the health conditions or risk status of those around you, using additional prevention measures—such as masking, physical distancing, and testing—is the most protective option.