Cold vs. flu

Is it a cold or the flu? Some­times it’s hard to tell, but it’s impor­tant to know the dif­fer­ence because the flu can have seri­ous com­pli­ca­tions such as pneu­mo­nia and even cause death.

Annual flu-related deaths in the United States have ranged from a low of 3,000 to a high of 49,000 over the past 30 years, accord­ing to the Cen­ters for Dis­ease Con­trol and Pre­ven­tion. Most of those deaths occur among high-risk groups with pul­monary dis­ease (such as asthma or COPD), dia­betes and heart disease.

Know­ing the dif­fer­ence helps find the most appro­pri­ate treat­ment to shorten the dura­tion and reduce the sever­ity of your illness.

Both the com­mon cold and influenza are res­pi­ra­tory ill­nesses, but caused by dif­fer­ent viruses. As res­pi­ra­tory ill­nesses, they often share symp­toms such as cough­ing, headaches, ear­aches, sore throats, stuffy or runny noses, sneez­ing, ach­i­ness and fatigue.

It can be nearly impos­si­ble to tell them apart based on symp­toms, but here are some impor­tant clues:

• In gen­eral, flu symp­toms are more severe;

• Flu symp­toms tend to come on sud­denly, while the onset of cold symp­toms is more grad­ual. If you feel like you have been hit by a truck, you prob­a­bly have the flu, and;

• While you may have a mild fever with a cold, a per­son with the flu gen­er­ally runs a fever with a body tem­per­a­ture between 100 and 102, or higher.

If there’s any doubt, we can take a nasal swab in our office to help con­firm a flu diagnosis.

We can pre­scribe antivi­ral med­ica­tions such as Tam­i­flu or Relenza to shorten the dura­tion of the flu, but they need to be started within 48 hours of get­ting sick to be effec­tive. They should not replace vac­cines as a pri­mary means of prevention.

Flu sea­son in Ohio can begin as early as Octo­ber and run as late as May. Only now are we begin­ning to see spo­radic activ­ity this flu sea­son, mean­ing it is not too late to get your flu shot. It usu­ally takes about two weeks for the shot to begin pro­vide immu­nity, in plenty of time for peak flu sea­son usu­ally in Jan­u­ary and Feb­ru­ary. The vac­cine is the sin­gle best way to pre­vent the flu and is read­ily avail­able from your physi­cian or at any one of a num­ber of phar­ma­cies. The CDC offers a loca­tor guide for flu shots by zip code at flu.gov.

Cold and flu viruses enter the body the same way – through mucous mem­branes in the eyes, nose and mouth. Every time you touch one of these areas, you could be infect­ing your­self. That’s why we rec­om­mend thor­ough, fre­quent hand wash­ing as a pre­ven­tion strat­egy for both colds and flu. About 80 per­cent of all con­ta­gious dis­eases are trans­mit­ted by touch because our hands are in con­stant con­tact with tele­phones, door­knobs, faucet han­dles and other repos­i­to­ries of germs.

Regard­less of your ill­ness, we rec­om­mend that you see your physi­cian if your symp­toms do not improve after three to five days, if they change or worsen, or if you show any signs of res­pi­ra­tory dis­tress such as short­ness of breath.

Per­sis­tent symp­toms may indi­cate a com­pli­ca­tion such as a bac­te­r­ial infec­tion that requires an antibi­otic. For instance, painful swal­low­ing may mean you have strep throat or per­sis­tent cough­ing could be bronchitis.

You can remain healthy and active this flu sea­son with some common-sense strate­gies. But the most impor­tant thing you can do is get your flu shot. It’s not too late.

Dr. Gre­gory Whis­man, is a board-certified fam­ily med­i­cine physi­cian at Pow­ell Fam­ily Med­i­cine and Lewis Cen­ter Med­ical Group. He is also an active mem­ber of the Grady Memo­r­ial Hos­pi­tal med­ical staff.

Posted by Grady Memorial Hospital on Dec 22 2011. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.