How can I tell the variance in between the flu and COVID-19?
It’s unattainable to tell without a examination. Influenza and COVID-19 have such related indicators, you may perhaps require to get analyzed to know what’s creating you miserable.
Human body aches, sore throat, fever, cough, shortness of breath, fatigue and headaches are signs or symptoms shared by the two.
A person change? Men and women with the flu typically experience sickest in the course of the 1st 7 days of sickness. With COVID-19, folks may perhaps feel the worst during the 2nd or third week, and they may be sicker for a longer time period.
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An additional big difference: COVID-19 is more possible than the flu to lead to a reduction of flavor or odor. But not every person activities that symptom, so it’s not a reliable way to tell the viruses apart.
That leaves tests, which will turn into additional vital as flu period ramps up this fall in the Northern Hemisphere. Medical practitioners will need to have to know test outcomes to figure out the greatest treatment.
It is also feasible to be infected with both equally viruses at the very same time, said Dr. Daniel Solomon, an infectious health conditions skilled at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Professional medical School in Boston.
Physique aches, sore throat, fever, cough, shortness of breath, tiredness and headaches are indications shared by the two.
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Irrespective of whether you get examined for a single or the two viruses may perhaps count on how offered tests are and which viruses are circulating where you dwell, he mentioned.
“Right now we are not viewing neighborhood transmission of influenza, so widespread screening for the flu is not yet advisable,” Solomon stated.
Equally the flu and coronavirus distribute by means of droplets from the nose and mouth. The two can distribute ahead of people today know they are ill. The flu has a shorter incubation time period — indicating just after infection it can choose just one to four days to experience unwell — in contrast to the coronavirus, which can consider two to fourteen times from infection to signs and symptoms.
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On typical, COVID-19 is far more contagious than flu. But lots of people with COVID-19 never spread the virus to any one, although a several individuals unfold it to a lot of other people. These “superspreader events” are far more prevalent with COVID-19 than flu, Solomon reported.
Stopping the flu commences with an once-a-year flu shot personalized to the strains of the flu virus that are circulating. Well being officials would like to see file quantities of individuals get flu shots this yr so hospitals aren’t overcome with two epidemics at when.
There is no vaccine still for COVID-19, whilst several candidates are in the final screening levels.
Precautions versus COVID-19 — masks, social distancing, hand-washing — also gradual the unfold of the flu, so overall health officers hope ongoing vigilance could lessen the severity of this year’s flu period.