Cold vs. swine flu: what are the differences in symptoms?

Sore throat is not commonly present with H1N1. Sudden, high fever is common. Sore throat is commonly present with the seasonal flu but not with swine flu. Swine flu has a rapid onset of three to six hours with rapid onset of headache in 80 percent of patients and high fever along with chest discomfort.

You might be feeling fine one minute and three hours later, you develop a severe headache, high fever, vomiting and diarhhea, tiredness, and a severe cough--suddenly in flight, at school, or at the office. Those are the symptoms of swine flu. But of course, if you have a very mild case, symptoms may be less severe. With no immunity, symptoms could be severe. Swine flu has a 20 percent fatality rate in older adults.

When you wake up sneezing, coughing, and have that achy, feverish, can't move a muscle feeling, how do you know whether you have cold symptoms, season flu, or swine flu? Sneezing and runny nose can be a common cold or an allergy.

And if it's the flu, could it be swine flu? The difference between swine flu and seasonal flu is the added discomfort of vomiting and diarrhea, usually not present with seasonal flu. Also the severity of coughing, lack of desire to move or eat, and increased desire to sleep all day is more severe in some people with swine flu. Pregnant women are hit hard with swine flu because their immune systems are compromised.

It all depends upon the severity which is different in each person. With swine flu, the hacking, dry cough lasts longer. Most healthy, young people find themselves with a hacking cough two weeks after recovering from swine flu. In seasonal flu, the cough may not last as long after recovery from the fever epdisode. But fatigue may linger on for up to three weeks.

In contrast, a common cold lasts a week--about seven days, and there is less coughing, unless you develop a secondary bacterial infection of bronchitis or have other virus inflammations in your bronchial tubes making the cough continue for another several weeks.

It's important to know the difference between flu and cold symptoms. A cold is a milder respiratory illness than the flu. Get the latest swine flu facts and information from Web MD, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, also known as the CDC and other public health agencies.

Cold Symptoms

Cold symptoms usually begin with a sore throat, which usually goes away after a day or two. Nasal symptoms, runny nose, and congestion follow, along with a cough by the fourth and fifth days. Fever is uncommon in adults, but a slight fever is possible. Children are more likely to have a fever with a cold.

Cold symptoms usually last for about a week. During the first three days that you have cold symptoms, you are contagious. This means you can pass the cold to others, so stay home and get some much-needed rest. How do you know whether you have a cold or a bacterial infection in your nose and throat? A cold goes away after seven days. Bacterial infections linger.

If you have painful swallowing and a sore throat that doesn't go away, have yourself tested for a strep throat. If you keep coughing after your cold is supposed to disappear in a week, it might be bronchitis. If you have a bacterial infection in your bronchial tubes after the cold is supposed to disappear, you may need an antibiotic.

Postnasal drip or sinusitis can also result in a persistent cough. In addition, asthma is another cause of persistent coughing. Asthma medications such as steroids, anti-inflammatory medications, and bronchodilators are necessary to treat asthma. Are you allergic to the air pollution around you or a pet, or even the neighbor next door burning wood in a fireplace that's seeping into your house? It could be an allergy. Allergies cause congestion and blockage of sinus passages and lead to sinus infections.

The sign of bacterial infection after a cold is pain in the area of the eyes and face with thick nasal discharge after a week. If it's bacteria, you may need an antibiotic.

Sometimes you may mistake cold symptoms for allergic rhinitis (hay fever) or a sinus infection. If your cold symptoms begin quickly and are improving after a week, then it is usually a cold, not allergy. If your cold symptoms do not seem to be getting better after a week, check with your doctor to see if you have developed an allergy or sinusitis.

Swine Flu Symptoms

What's the difference between the common cold (rhinovirus) and the swine flu? Flu symptoms are severe. Cold symptoms usually begin with a scratchy throat, increased mucus at the back of the noses coming into the throat, more spitting, and a loss of taste and smell.

The next day after a cold starts begins the sneezing phase and running nose with further decreased sense of smell and taste. The old adage "feed a cold and starve a fever," refers to the increased appetite, but lack of taste of food with a common cold, a rhinovirus. The "starve a fever" folklore refers to the extreme lack of appetite that comes with a fever.

With the flu, you can't get out of bed or move for two days as your body is wracked by fever. Sometimes the fever hits you in the equilibrium, where you're too dizzy to get out of bed. Other times you feel feverish. It becomes difficult to move. You're not paralyzed, of course, but you'd rather not move. Body aches increase with the flu. Compare that sensation with the feelings you get with a common cold of constantly sneezing or blowing your runny nose.

With a common cold, you can still go to work or school, but may find your ears clogged up. Your voice is nasal as the cold progresses. In the middle of a seven-day cold, your nose becomes stuffy and blocked, making your voice sound nasal. You may also get a hoarse voice with a cold.

If the cold settles into your chest, you might get a wet cough, bringing up yellow mucus. If the mucus is not thick and colored yellow or greenish, you probably have an allergy. Clear, runny noses often mimic a cold, but really are allergies to air pollution or dander.

With the flu, symptoms come on quickly. Symptoms of swine flu and seasonal flu include sore throat, fever, headache, muscle aches and soreness, congestion, and cough. Swine flu in particular is also associated with vomiting and diarrhea.

Most flu symptoms gradually improve over two to five days, but you may still infect others if you don't cover your coughs and sneezes in the bend of your elbow. Don't cough into your balled fist. It just passes the virus from your hands to door knobs and other objects people handle.

After the flu, you'll feel run down for one to three weeks. A common complication of the flu is pneumonia, particularly in the young, elderly, or people with lung or heart problems. If you notice shortness of breath, you should let your doctor know. Another common sign of pneumonia is fever that comes back after you think you've recovered from the flu, and one or two days passes.

Then you get hit with fever all over again. At that point, you must have yourself tested for pneumonia. You could have a secondary infection. What doctors look for in people who've just gotten over the flu is fever returning. That's a reason to test for pneumonia.

Flu and cold viruses both enter your body through the mucous membranes of your nose, eyes, or mouth. Every time you touch your hand to one of these areas after you've touched the kitchen sink, phones, door knobs, public transportation, or computer keyboards, you could be infecting yourself with a virus, which makes it very important to keep your hands germ-free with frequent washing to prevent both flu and cold symptoms.

Symptoms

Cold

Fever only sometimes, usually mild

Stuffy nose follows two or more days of runny nose

Sneezing

Sore throat, scratchy feeling at back of throat that worsens

Hoarseness sometimes

Headache, slight, sometimes, not usually

Sight aches

No lack of appetite, but may have decrease sense of taste and smell of food.

With deep chest cold, wet cough, sometimes painful cough, feeling of rawness in chest with cold

Mucus from nose is thick and colored yellow or greenish with cold compared to clear, transparent mucus in runny nose from allergies.

Ears may feel stuffed up. Complications of cold, ear infection.

Flu

Fever usual; high (100-102 F; occasionally higher, especially in young children); lasts 3 to 4 days

Headache, painful in swine flu, may not have headache in season flu. May get severe headache.

Body aches, chills, sometimes convulsing and seizure-like shaking in people prone to tremors from not eating solid foods for several days due to lack of appetite with the flu.

Fatigue, weakness, feeling that you don't want to move from bed.

Desire to sleep most of the day.

Fatigue may last up to three weeks.

Exhaustion.

Hacking dry cough lasting two or more weeks after getting over the flu, including swine flu.

Severe staccato-like coughing with a dry cough.

Swine flu: vomiting and diarrhea in some people.

Chest discomfort

Sinus congestion; middle ear infection

Sinusitis, bronchitis, ear infection, pneumonia; can be life-threatening

Prevention

Wash your hands often.

Stay away from people with colds or flu, even when they come back to work or school if they are still coughing.

Wash your hands often. Use hand sanitizer with rubbing alcohol or other disinfectant for hands.

Avoid close contact with anyone who has flu symptoms.

Season flu help: take the annual flu shot. Ask your doctor about antiviral medicine for either seasonal or swine flu. The swine flu this year is all-year round. Usually seasonal flu starts in early October and lasts through April.

Treatment

Colds

There's no anti-viral medicines that get rid of a cold fast, and anti-bacterial medicines won't get rid of cold viruses (rhinovirus). To relieve symptoms, you could try antihistamines, decongestants, or anti-inflammatory supplements, or medicines.

However, some people get sudden high blood pressure from taking certain commonly found over-the-counter decongestants. This usually happens to people with a genetic propensity to get high blood pressure later in life. Use common sense. A cold will last seven days whether you take medicine for symptoms or not.

Stay away from that type of decongestant and use food-based decongestants, such as inhaling the steam from warm water for a few seconds. Talk to your doctor about what's safe for you to take with your condition or situation if high blood pressure runs in your family, including responses to taking certain types of decongestants.  Use  Uj jjk

Resources

Cold & Flu Differences

Cold vs. Flu Symptoms - Treatment - Quiz - Symptoms & Types

Difference Between Cold and Swine Flu Symptoms - TAKE CARE FRIENDS

Web MD

Cold and Flu (Influenza) Center: Symptoms, Treatments, Causes, and ...

Swine Flu Versus Regular Cold Flu Symptoms - Bakersfield News ...

Difference between Cold and Swine Flu Symptoms

Differences between cold & swine flu, and seasonal flu symptoms (PDF file)

Know the Difference between Cold and Swine Flu Symptoms ...

Know the Difference between Cold and Swine Flu Symptoms

Difference Between Cold and Swine Flu Symptoms

What's the difference between cold and flu?: Scientific American