“Colds spread easily, especially within homes, classrooms and workplaces. A cold is a contagious upper respiratory infection that affects your nose, throat, sinuses and windpipe (trachea). More than 200 different viruses can cause colds. There’s no cure but there are prevention tips for a common cold, but it usually goes away within a week to 10 days. If you don’t feel better in 10 days, see a healthcare provider.  Now take Flu season — when cases of the flu go up dramatically — in the Northern Hemisphere (which includes the U.S.) is October through May. The highest number of cases (peak) usually happen between December and February.  Every flu season, about 20 to 40 million people in the U.S. catch the flu.  Symptoms can be similar.  How to tell the difference?  Your provider diagnoses the flu by listening to your symptoms and testing a sample of mucus from your nose. They’ll put a long stick with a soft tip (swab) in your nose to test for influenza. Results may take a few minutes or your provider may send the sample to a lab, where you’ll get results in a day or two.”

Cleveland Clinic (https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/4335-influenza-flu)

This season 2021, the flu will be “a little bit unpredictable,” Dr. Clare Rock, associate professor of medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, tells CNBC Make It.

Are the treatments for these illnesses the cold or the flu different?

For any of these things, if it affects the nose or sinus, just rinsing with saline that gets the mucus and virus out is a first-line defense. It’s not the most pleasant thing to do, but it works very well. There are classes of medicines that can help the flu — Tamiflu and Relenza — antivirals that block viruses’ ability to reproduce and shorten the length and severity of the illness. But they have to be taken within 48 hours or the cat is proverbially out of the bag [because by then] the virus has done the most of its reproduction. For a cold or flu, rest and use decongestants and antihistamines, ibuprofen, acetaminophen, chicken soup and fluids.

Zinc supposedly helps the body’s natural defenses work to their natural capacity and decrease the severity and length of a cold. Cells need zinc as a catalyst in their protective processes, so if you supply them with zinc, it helps them work more efficiently. You should also withhold iron supplements. Viruses use iron as part of their reproductive cycle, so depriving them of it blocks their dissemination.

The majority of these infections are not bacterial and do not require [nor will they respond to] antibiotics. My rule of thumb is that a viral infection should go away in seven to 10 days. If symptoms persist after that, you’d consider if it’s bacteria like Strep or Haemophilus. Those bacteria cause illnesses that are longer lasting and need antibiotics for ranging 3 to 14 days, depending on the med used.

Is that treatment approach the same for kids versus adults?

In general, the same rules apply: Most children will have six to eight colds a year in their first three years of life, and most are viral.  Adults have 3 or more a year. It’s very easy to test for strep and for that you should have a [positive] culture [before treating with antibiotics].  The principle behind that is knowing the organism the doctor will know what antibiotic to use to fight off the bacterial infection and you won’t build up antibodies from the antibiotic that you didn’t need in the first place if you are given the wrong antibiotic in the beginning.

Treatments to the flu are:Most people with flu have mild illness and do not need medical care or antiviral drugs. If you get sick with flu symptoms, in most cases, you should stay home and avoid contact with other people except to get medical care.

Antiviral drugs can help treat flu illness: Antiviral drugs are different from antibiotics. Flu antivirals are prescription medicines (pills, liquid, intravenous solution, or an inhaled powder) and are not available over the counter. Antiviral drugs can make illness milder and shorten the time you are sick.

• Antiviral drugs are different from antibiotics. Flu antivirals are prescription medicines (pills, liquid, intravenous solution, or an inhaled powder) and are not available over the counter.
• Antiviral drugs can make illness milder and shorten the time you are sick. They might also prevent serious flu complications, like pneumonia, when treatment is started early.
• It’s very important that antiviral drugs be started early after symptoms begin to treat people who are very sick with flu (for example, people who are in the hospital) and people who are sick with flu and have a greater chance of getting serious flu complications, either because of their age or because they have a higher risk medical condition. Other people also might be treated with antiviral drugs by their doctor. Most otherwise-healthy people who get flu, however, do not need to be treated with antiviral drugs.

What are the strategies for avoiding cold and flu different?

Avoidance is very similar: Strict hand washing, not sharing drinking cups or utensils, and avoiding direct contact with people who are sneezing.  Their transmission is similar.  As long as someone has a fever, they have the possibility to transmit infection. After they’ve had no fever for 24 hours, they’re not infectious anymore.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) now recommends that just about everyone get the flu shot: kids 6 months to 19 years of age, pregnant women, people 50 and up, and people of any age with compromised immune systems. Is the shot beneficial to anyone who gets it?

Unless you have a contraindication, there’s no reason not to get it=PREVENTION. Contraindications include egg allergy (because the vaccine is grown from egg products), any vaccines within a last week or two, and active illness at the time of your vaccine.

The best to do is PREVENTION so you can avoid the cold or flu in its active phase or post phase, so doing the following will help prevent it:

Live a healthy lifestyle overall=Good dieting, living good healthy habits and maintaining exercise with rest daily or 2 to 3 times a week including get a vaccine yearly for the flu=influenza with maintaining good clean anti-infection habits like as simply as washing the hands as directed above.

The tips and resources below will help you learn about actions you can take to protect yourself and others from one the flu and two a severe common cold to help stop the spread of germs.

1. 1. Stay home when you are sick.
      If possible, stay home from work, school, and errands when you are sick. This will help prevent spreading your illness to others.
   2. Cover your mouth and nose.
      Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue when coughing or sneezing. It may prevent those around you from getting sick. Flu viruses spread mainly by droplets made when people with flu cough, sneeze or talk.
   3. Clean your hands.
      Washing your hands often will help protect you from germs. If soap and water are not available, use an alcohol-based hand rub.
      • Handwashing: Clean Hands Save Lives
        Tips on hand washing and using alcohol-based hand sanitizers
      • It’s a SNAP Toolkit: Handwashing
        Hand washing resources from the It’s A SNAP program, aimed at preventing school absenteeism by promoting clean hands. From the School Network for Absenteeism Prevention, a collaborative project of the CDC, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the American Cleaning Institute.
   4. Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth.
      Germs can be spread when a person touches something that is contaminated with germs and then touches his or her eyes, nose, or mouth.
   5. Practice other good health habits.
      Clean and disinfect frequently touched surfaces at home, work or school, especially when someone is ill. Get plenty of sleep, be physically active, manage your stress, drink plenty of fluids, and eat nutritious food.
   6. Avoid close contact.
      Avoid close contact with people who are sick. When you are sick, keep your distance from others to protect them from getting sick too.

****Recommended is to check with your MD on any changes with diet or exercise especially if diagnosed already with disease or illness for your safety.****

References for Part 1,2, and 3 on the two bugs The FLU and The COLD:

1-Wikipedia “the free encyclopedia” 2013 website under the topic Influenza.

2-Kimberly Clark Professional website under the influenza.

3-Web MD under “COLD, FLU, COUGH CENTER” “Flu or cold symptoms?” Reviewed by Laura J. Martin MD November 01, 2011

4-2013 Novartis Consumer Health Inc. Triaminic “Fend off the Flu”

5-Scientific American “Why do we get the flu most often in the winter? Are viruses virulent in cold weather? December 15, 1999

5-CDC Center for Disease Prevention and Control CDC

“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 or the flu?

Those bugs that are common in fall & winter  are 2 Viruses =The COLD and THE FLU.

HOW THEY ARE DIFFERENT:

Both influenza and the common cold are viral respiratory infections (they affect the nose, throat, and lungs). Viruses are spread from person to person through airborne droplets (aerosols) that are sneezed out or coughed up by an infected person, direct contact is another form of spread with infected nasal secretions, or fomites (contaminated objects).  Which of these routes is of primary importance has not been determined, however hand to hand and hand to surface to hand to contact seems of more importance than transmission.  The viruses may survive for prolonged periods in the environment (over 18 hours for rhinoviruses in particular=a common virus for colds) and can be picked up by people’s hands and subsequently carried to their eyes or nose where infection occurs. In some cases, the viruses can be spread when a person touches an infected surface (e.g., doorknobs, countertops, telephones) and then touches his or her nose, mouth, or eyes. As such, these illnesses are most easily spread in crowded conditions such as schools.

The traditional folk theory that you can catch a cold in prolonged exposure to cold weather such as rain or winter settings is how the illness got its name.  Some of the viruses that cause common colds are seasonal, occurring more frequently during cold or wet weather.  The reason for the seasonality has not yet been fully determined.  This may occur due to cold induced changes in the respiratory system, decreased immune response, and low humidity increasing viral transmission rates, perhaps due to dry air allowing small viral droplets to disperse farther, and stay in the air longer.  It may be due to social factors, such as people spending more time indoors, as opposed to outdoors, exposing him or her “self” to an infected person, and specifically children at school.  There is some controversy over the role of body cooling as a risk factor for the common cold; the majority of the  evidence does suggest a result in greater susceptibility to infection.

The SIMPLE COMMON COLD:

The common cold (also known as nasopharyngitis, rhinopharyngitis, acute coryza, head cold) or simply a cold is a viral infection of the upper respiratory tract which primarily effects the nose.  There are over 200 different known cold viruses, but most colds (30% up to 80%) are caused by rhinovirusesThis means you can pass the cold to others, so stay home and get some much-needed rest for yourself and not passing it on to others for the contagious period at least.

If cold symptoms do not seem to be improving after a week, you may have a bacterial infection, which means you may need antibiotics, which only kill bacterial infections not viral.

Sometimes you may mistake cold symptoms for allergic rhinitis (hay fever) or a sinus infection (bacterial). If 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 inflammation or the sinuses (sinusitis).

Influenza is commonly referred to as “the flu”, this is an infectious disease of birds and mammals caused by RNA viruses of the family Orthomyxoviridae, the influenza viruses.  The most common sign or symptom are chills, fever, runny nose, coughing, aches and weakness to headache and sore throat.  Although it is often confused with other influenza-like illnesses, especially the COMMON COLD, influenza is a more severe illness or disease caused by a different virus.  Influenza nausea and vomiting, particularly in children but these symptoms are more common in the unrelated gastroenteritis, which is sometimes inaccurately referred to as “stomach flu” or “25 hour flu”.
The flu can occasionally lead to pneumonia, either direct viral pneumonia or secondary bacterial pneumonia, even for persons who are usually very healthy.  In particular it is a warning sign if a child or presumably an adult seems to be getting better and then relapses with a high fever as this relapse may be bacterial pneumonia.  Another warning sign is if the person starts to have trouble breathing.

Each year, 10% to 20% of Canadians are stricken with influenza. Although most people recover fully, depending on the severity of the flu season, it can result in an average of 20,000 hospitalizations and approximately 4000 to 8000 deaths annually in Canada. Deaths due to the flu are found mostly among high-risk populations, such as those with other medical conditions (such as diabetes or cancer) or weakened immune systems, seniors, or very young children. There are 3 types of influenza viruses: A, B, and C. Type A influenza causes the most serious problems in humans and can be carried by humans or animals (wild birds are commonly the host carriers). It is more common for humans seem to carry the most with ailments with type A influenza.  Type B  Influenza is found in humans also.  Type B flu may cause less severe reaction than A type flu virus but for the few for the many can still be at times extremely harmed.  Influenza B viruses are not classified by subtype and do not cause pandemics at this time.  Influenza type C also found in people but milder than type A or B.  People don’t become very ill from this Type C Influenza and do not cause pandemics.

The common cold eventually fizzles, but the flu may be deadly. Some 200,000 people in the U.S. are hospitalized and 36,000 die each year from flu complications — and that pales in comparison to the flu pandemic of 1918 that claimed between 20 and 100 million lives.

The best defense against it:   a vaccine once a year.

References for Part 1 and 2 on the two bugs The FLU and The COLD:

1-Wikipedia “the free encyclopedia” 2013 website under the topic Influenza.

2-Kimberly Clark Professional website under the influenza.

3-Web MD under “COLD, FLU, COUGH CENTER” “Flu or cold symptoms?” Reviewed by Laura J. Martin MD November 01, 2011

4-2013 Novartis Consumer Health Inc. Triaminic “Fend off the Flu”

5-Scientific American “Why do we get the flu most often in the winter? Are viruses virulent in cold weather? December 15, 1997

6-Centers for Disease Prevention and Control CDC

“The flu vaccine is safe for most people and is recommended for everyone ages 6 months and older. People who should not receive flu vaccines are those who have had a severe allergic reaction to the flu or other vaccine in the past and those who have had a condition called Guillan-Barre syndrome.   Make a plan to get vaccinated and why is because of the following.  You should get a flu vaccine before flu viruses begin spreading in your community since it takes about two weeks after vaccination for antibodies to develop in the body and provide protection against flu.  A flu vaccine is needed every season for two reasons. First, a person’s immune protection from vaccination declines over time, so an annual vaccine is needed for optimal protection. Second, because flu viruses are constantly changing, flu vaccines may be updated from one season to the next to protect against the viruses that research suggests may be most common during the upcoming flu season.”.

Baltimore City Health Dept (https://health.baltimorecity.gov/flu/frequently-asked-questions-about-flu-vaccines)

“”Handwashing is one of the best ways to protect yourself and your family from getting sick. Washing hands can keep you healthy and prevent the spread of respiratory and diarrheal infections. Germs can spread from person to person or from surfaces to people when you:
-Touch your eyes, nose, and mouth with unwashed hands
-Prepare or eat food and drinks with unwashed hands
-Touch surfaces or objects that have germs on them
-Blow your nose, cough, or sneeze into hands and then touch other people’s hands or common objects.”

Center for Disease Control and Prevention-CDC (https://www.cdc.gov/hygiene/personal-hygiene/hands.htm)

“Hand hygiene saves millions of lives every year when performed at the right moments during health care delivery. It is also a smart investment that offers exceptional return for each dollar invested. Clean care is a sign of respect to those who seek care, and it protects health and other workers who provide that care.

“80 % of communicable diseases are believed to be transmitted by human hands. According to the CDC and the latest research) is the most effective way to prevent the spread of Coronavirus and other communicable diseases is through washing your hands with soap and water frequently and correctly, following CDC guidelines. The U.S. as of Dec 2020 was currently experiencing the following that can be mitigated by regular hand washing, which was novel influenza virus pandemic, a national measles outbreak and a novel coronavirus pandemic.  Why all this awareness on handwashing people? Because we are bad at remembering as a population and even worse at how we wash our hands. A quick survey of five pre-covid handwashing studies showed that on average, only about 40% of men and 64% of women wash their hands after using a public restroom.” Even though there is some evidence of some small improvements in these figures after the covid pandemic, that still leaves about 60% of men and 34% of women walking around with contaminated hands, not to mention cell phones, wallets, credit cards, and everything else we touch.”.  If your not part of that percentile GREAT but if you are you may want to following hand washing week purpose with the including the understanding why.  Look at disease or illnesses that can come from contacting or droplet that can be decreased in being transmitted to others in one step handwashing if the person who is ill is not on isolation quarantined that take other actions with handwashing to prevent transmission to others.”

Avalon Memory of Care since 1995   (https://avalonmemorycare.com/national-hand-washing-awareness-month/)

”Research shows that you can prevent 1 in 3 illnesses that cause diarrhea and 1 in 5 respiratory infections by keeping your hands clean. That’s because your hands are a convenient transportation system for germs. Thinking of germs getting on and off a bus can help you understand how they travel from one spot to another. Germs can hop on the bus (your hands) and quickly get where they want to go (cells inside your body). All you have to do is touch a contaminated surface and then touch your eyes, nose or mouth. From there, the germs transfer to the mucus membranes that lead into your body, where they attempt to set up camp and multiply.”

Cleveland Clinic (https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/17474-hand-washing)