Hope this is a timely posting-there are some subtle differences between the cold, influenza and COVID-19. Hope this helps everyone
It used to be that you’d start to get the sniffles or wake up with a fever and body aches and you had a pretty good idea whether it was a run-of-the-mill head cold or a knock-you-out-for-a-week case of the flu. But times are different. The COVID-19 outbreak has made it trickier to know what to ask when you call the doctor about what’s ailing you.
“Three different viruses cause a cold, flu, or COVID-19, but because so many symptoms are the result of your immune system reacting to the virus
Common Cold
Symptoms for the cold tend to come on gradually and mostly involve the head and neck. Here’s what to look out for:
Sneezing
Stuffy nose/runny nose
Sore throat
Productive cough (a ‘wet’ or chesty cough that produces mucus or phlegm)
Watery eyes
The Flu
Unlike the slow onset of a cold, flu symptoms come on suddenly. “It’s almost out of the blue. The first two flu symptoms listed below are the ones that make you feel truly awful.
Fever/chills
Body aches/muscle pain
Fatigue
Cough
Shortness of breath
Sore throat
Stuffy nose/runny nose
Headache
COVID-19
Unfortunately, prettty much lot of the symptoms of the flu are also associated with COVID-19. There are 11 kinds of symptoms correlated with COVID-19 (so far),but most people who are symptomatic will have one of the first three symptoms listed. There is one major outlier that can help differentiate between COVID-19 and the flu or a cold: The loss of taste and smell is unique to COVID-19. Another unique characteristic of COVID-19 is that you might not have any symptoms at all. That said, here are the important ones to remember:
Fever/chills
Cough
Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing
Fatigue
Body aches/muscle pain
Headaches
New loss of taste or smell
Sore throat
Congestion/runny nose
Nausea/vomiting
Diarrhea
Unfortunately it is quite challenging even for physicians to differentiate between the three…do the best advice is to take steps to avoid it…masks, social distancing , hand-washing also work for the ‘flu.
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