Measles: Causes, Symptoms, Diagnosis, Treatment & Prevention
Is A Cold, Flu, COVID, RSV Or Pneumonia? Symptoms And How To Avoid Them This Winter
We had our cold snap and it seemed like everyone was sneezing and coughing last week. And more cool weather is on the way. So should you be concerned about flu, RSV, a cold, or COVID-19? Well, yes, any of them.
Maybe not right away. Seasonal flu activity has been down but is starting to increase slightly among children, according to the latest report from the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC). Florida Department of Health data shows the number of reported COVID cases and deaths dropping in the Sunshine State since the summer surge.
But respiratory viruses tend to come roaring back during the holidays when everyone starts gathering together indoors. There's been a rise in "walking pneumonia," and we've seen a winter COVID surge every year since the pandemic began.
The numbers from the Florida Department of Health show increases in flu positivity rates and emergency room visits for the week ending Nov. 23 in more than half the counties in the state, with outbreaks in Indian River, Lake, Martin and St. Lucie counties.
Meanwhile reported COVID cases and deaths in Florida in October were less than half the number from last year and a drop from the summer spike, according to FDOH data. But both traditionally start trending upward, starting in November. So far, there have been 408,910 cases reported this year through October, compared to 582,052 in 2023, and 5,680 people have died in 2024.
So what should you do if you start coughing? Without testing, it's hard to tell if your snuffling and congestion is anything more than a cold, but either way, don't panic, say medical experts. Just take proper precautions.
How to keep from getting sick this winterWash your hands. It helps reduce your chance of spreading a virus if you sneeze, cough or touch your face. Hand sanitizer also helps, along with covering your mouth when you sneeze or cough.
Wear a mask on the plane. If you're about to spend several hours in an enclosed space with lots of other people during flu season, keeping your mouth and nose covered might not be a bad idea. Cases of flu dropped dramatically during the pandemic years when masking was commonplace.
If you're sick, stay home. If you're experiencing chills, fever, fatigue, congestion, cough, a runny nose and headaches, stay home to avoid spreading it. If you must be in public, wearing a mask and maintaining social distance still works.
According to the CDC, the most common symptoms of any variant of COVID-19 are:
Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing
New loss of taste or smell
Brain fog (fuzziness, difficulty thinking or focusing).
Nausea or vomiting, mild diarrhea
Some people with COVID are asymptomatic and never display any symptoms, although they can still pass it to others. And many people with COVID have mild symptoms. If symptoms arise or you've been exposed to someone with COVID, get yourself tested and, if it's positive, observe the recommended isolation and distancing methods. Ask your healthcare provider for the antiviral Paxlovid, which has been shown to be highly effective for people at risk of severe complications.
According to the CDC, if you are showing any of the following signs, seek emergency medical care immediately:
Persistent pain or pressure in the chest
Inability to wake or stay awake
Pale, gray, or blue-colored skin, lips, or nail beds, depending on skin tone
While public urgency has lapsed concerning COVID, so far 5,685 Floridians have died this year as of the end of October. Even people with mild or no symptoms at first have found themselves dealing with the debilitating effects of long COVID later.
What are the symptoms of the flu?More or less the same thing as COVID, except for the loss of taste or smell and brain fog, and not everyone will run a fever.
COVID-19 symptoms usually appear two to 14 days after exposure to the coronavirus. Flu symptoms start to show up about one to four days after exposure to an influenza virus.
However, COVID-19 can cause more serious illnesses in some people than the flu, as well as complications such as blood clots and lasting respiratory problems, and it's impossible to tell the difference without testing.
Last year, the Food and Drug Administration authorized the first over-the-counter at-home test, the Lucira COVID-19 and Flu Home Test that can detect and differentiate between flu and COVID-19.
Getting vaxxed: Is it safe to get a flu shot and a COVID-19 vaccine at the same time? Experts explain
How long does the flu last? How long are you contagious with the flu?Most people who get the flu will recover in a few days to less than two weeks, the CDC said. But some people may develop complications such as pneumonia that can be life-threatening. The flu vaccine can help prevent reduce the chances of infection and reduce the severity of the symptoms if you do catch it.
People with the flu can be contagious starting one day before they notice symptoms and up to five to seven days after getting sick, the CDC said.
What are the symptoms for pneumonia?"Pneumonia" can mean many different types of infections, including meningitis, bloodstream infections, ear or sinus infections, and more. Symptoms vary depending on what part of the body is affected.
"Walking pneumonia," a respiratory tract infection, generally starts as a chest cold and can include fever, cough and a sore throat before processing to pneumonia.
Symptoms of pneumococcal pneumonia, a lung infection, include:
Rapid breathing or difficulty breathing
Older adults may experience confusion or low alertness instead of the more common symptoms.
What are the symptoms of RSV?Symptoms of RSV — Respiratory Syncytial Virus, a common and contagious virus — tend to show up within four to six days after infection, the CDC says, and may include:
The symptoms usually appear in stages rather than all at once, and health experts say they typically resolve on their own within a week or two. In infants under 6 months, the only discernible symptoms may be increased irritability or lethargy and breathing difficulties.
Healthy adults and infants with RSV infections generally don't need to be hospitalized, according to the CDC. However, it may be necessary if the person is having trouble breathing or is dehydrated.
What are the symptoms for a cold?Like other respiratory illnesses, the symptoms of the common cold are often coughing, sneezing, a runny or stuffy nose, a sore throat, tiredness and sometimes a fever. Symptoms usually appear one to three days after exposure to a cold-causing virus.
Unlike flu or COVID, or RSV for babies and young children, a cold is usually harmless and cold-sufferers, while miserable, generally recover in three to 10 days. But it is highly contagious, especially when "your symptoms are at their worst," according to the Cleveland Clinic.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: COVID, flu, pneumonia rises during holidays. Here are symptoms
What Are The Symptoms Of Bird Flu?
It's the season for sniffles and sore throats, which means that scientists are monitoring the usual suspects like influenza, RSV, and COVID-19. But they're also watching another virus this winter: H5N1 avian influenza, or bird flu.
U.S. Health agencies say that the virus currently poses a low risk to the general public, even though it is spreading widely among chickens, cows, and other animals. There have been 55 confirmed human cases in the U.S., according to the latest statistics from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and all but two of those people had been exposed to sick poultry or cattle. There is currently no evidence that the people who have gotten sick have infected other people, according to the CDC.
Nonetheless, researchers are tracking the virus in case that situation changes. Recently, a teenager in Canada was hospitalized after being infected with bird flu—and when researchers analyzed the genetic sequence of the virus that sickened the teen, they reportedly found that it had undergone mutations that could allow it to spread more easily among humans. The individual doesn't seem to have infected anyone else, but the findings underscore the possibility that bird flu could one day become a bigger risk to the general public.
Right now, experts say there's not much for the average person to worry about. (Just don't drink raw milk, which can harbor the virus, and don't touch animals that are dead or appear to be sick.) If you're curious about the signs and symptoms of bird flu, though, here's what to know.
What are the symptoms of bird flu?Many of the people in the U.S. Who have caught bird flu have reported conjunctivitis-like eye issues, including eye redness, discomfort, and discharge. That seems to be because the virus can target cells in the human eye. Farm workers who have been sickened on the job may have also been eye-level with infected animals.
Bird flu can also cause respiratory and classic flu-like symptoms, including cough, runny nose, fever, sore throat, body aches, headaches, fatigue, shortness of breath, and pneumonia, the CDC says. Some people in the U.S. Who have caught bird flu have experienced respiratory symptoms as well.
How can you tell the difference between bird flu and regular flu?Bird flu and seasonal flu can look similar—but if you develop flu-like symptoms, chances are very good that it's just the regular flu or another routine winter illness. There is no indication that bird flu is spreading among the general U.S. Population, the CDC says.
Read More: What to Do if You Have Sleep Apnea
Bird flu can be diagnosed by testing samples taken from a sick person's nose, throat, or eye, but testing is primarily recommended for people who have symptoms and have been recently exposed to animals that may be sick.
Is bird flu serious?The small number of cases reported in the U.S. Have so far been mild, with none requiring hospitalization. But bird flu can be serious. The infected teenager in Canada, for example, was hospitalized and in critical condition.
People have also died during previous bird flu outbreaks. From January 2003 to November 2024, more than 900 human H5N1 cases were recorded in 24 countries, and about half of them were fatal, according to World Health Organization statistics. But those figures likely miss people with milder, potentially undetected illnesses. It is also unclear how deadly the virus would be if it evolved to spread widely from person-to-person, which never happened in these past outbreaks.
Are bird flu vaccines available?Some companies make vaccines that can be used against bird flu, and the U.S. Government recently distributed $72 million to ensure doses of these vaccines can be made available quickly if necessary.
But don't expect to find bird flu vaccines at your local pharmacy; they're not available to the public right now. Instead, focus on getting your regular flu shot if you haven't already. It won't work against bird flu, but it can help protect you against the virus you're far more likely to encounter this season.
What Are Flu-like Symptoms?
Flu-like symptoms are a group of symptoms that often occur together during viral infections, such as influenza (flu). The symptoms can include fever, chills, headache, and body aches.
Colds, COVID-19, and bacterial infections can also cause flu-like symptoms. However, noninfectious conditions such as autoimmune disorders, as well as certain drugs and medical treatments, can lead to flu-like symptoms.
Read on to learn more about what flu-like symptoms are, their potential causes, and when to contact a doctor.
Doctors use the term "flu-like symptoms" as shorthand for a collection of symptoms that often occur as a result of infectious illnesses, such as flu. However, many conditions can potentially cause them.
These symptoms can include:
Some of the most common causes for flu-like symptoms include:
Flu
Flu typically develops suddenly and tends to be more severe than a cold.
Colds
Colds can also cause some flu-like symptoms, although this will rarely include fever or chills. If the cause is a cold, the onset will usually be more gradual than with flu, and the symptoms less severe.
COVID-19
The symptoms of COVID-19 can be so similar to flu that they are difficult to tell apart. However, COVID-19 can cause more severe illness in some people than flu. It also spreads more easily and is contagious for longer.
People who could have COVID-19 should stay at home and seek testing to confirm the diagnosis.
Other viral illnesses
Because flu-like symptoms can be a result of an immune response, many other viral infections can cause them, such as:
Bacterial infections
Parasitic and fungal infections
Flu-like symptoms can also be due to infections from parasites or fungi, such as:
Below are some of the causes of flu-like symptoms that are not the result of an infection.
Stress and anxiety
Stress and anxiety can cause many of the same symptoms as flu, including:
Chronic stress also reduces the immune system's defenses against infections, including flu and the common cold, according to a 2019 review. It may combine with other factors, such as circulating infections, to make viral illness more likely.
Autoimmune diseases
Some autoimmune disorders cause generalized symptoms that affect the whole body, such as a low grade fever, fatigue, and muscle or joint pain. Some examples of these conditions include lupus and rheumatoid arthritis.
As with infections, this can be due to activation of the immune system.
Other chronic illnesses and postexertional malaise
Several chronic illnesses can cause flu-like symptoms, such as:
For some people with these conditions, flu-like symptoms may be regular. For others, they may only occur after a person tries to do more physical activity. This is known as postexertional malaise.
Medical treatments
Several medications and treatments can cause flu-like symptoms as a side effect, including:
Drug withdrawal
Some drugs cause withdrawal when a person reduces their dosage or stops taking them. This can happen with both legal and illegal or prescription-only drugs, such as:
The symptoms of withdrawal can vary between drugs and individuals, but can include flu-like symptoms such as fatigue, nausea, body aches, headaches, and feeling cold.
For some drugs, such as alcohol and benzodiazpines, withdrawal can be dangerous. Always seek guidance from a doctor before stopping or changing the dose of a drug.
Can you get flu-like symptoms after donating blood?
Some people feel dizzy, sweaty, or nauseous during or after having a blood draw. This can be a vasovagal response, which is a nervous system reaction that makes a person feel faint.
People experiencing these symptoms should lie down right away, drink fluids, and rest until they feel better. However, if these symptoms do not get better with rest, this may indicate a person had an infection when they gave blood.
Can dental work cause flu-like symptoms?
Some people experience flu-like symptoms after dental work. This may be due to complications, such as a negative reaction to anesthesia, an allergic reaction, or an infection.
Stress or anxiety during the procedure could also cause some flu-like symptoms afterwards.
People who feel unwell after dental work should talk to their dentist right away, particularly if they have a fever, swelling, and pus or a bad taste in the mouth.
Flu-like symptoms can include fatigue, a sore throat, headache, body aches, fever or chills, and a general feeling of being unwell. Flu is a potential cause for this group of symptoms, but many other infections can cause them, too.
Sometimes, flu-like symptoms can occur for other reasons, such as stress, drugs, medical treatments, vaccines, or noninfectious chronic conditions.
Because many conditions can cause flu-like symptoms, it is important to speak with a doctor if they persist, are severe, or could be a sign of a serious illness.
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