People infected with an influenza or cold virus become contagious 24 hours after the virus enters the body (often before symptoms appear). Adults remain infectious (can spread the virus to others) for about 6 days, and children remain infectious for up to 10 days. Factors that may increase the risk of catching a cold are fatigue, emotional stress, smoking, mid-phase of the menstrual cycle, and nasal allergies. Factors that do not increase the risk of catching a cold include cold body temperature (Example being out in the cold or enlarged tonsils). General health status and eating habits do in that they have impact on your immunity and “fight or flight” in fighting off infection as opposed to getting sick due to a healthy body overall.
Watch for flu symptoms and in comparison here with the cold symptoms when trying to decipher what you have before going to the doctor. Signs and symptoms (S/S):
Flu s/s=High Fever lasting 3 to 4 days, prominent headache, general aches and pains which are often and severe, fatigue & weakness that lasts up to 2-3 wks., extreme exhaustion-early & prominent chest discomfort, cough-common & severe at times. *Note weakness and tiredness can last up to a few weeks with the Flu.
Cold S/S-Fever-rare, headache-rare, slight aches, mild fatigue if even present, extreme exhaustion (never occurs), Chest discomfort-mild if present, cough-moderate and hacking cough with sore throat sometimes present.
Common symptom: Stuffy nose is present, a common symptom for children is diarrhea and vomiting.
Regarding cold symptoms also be aware for these specifics, which include:
-Sore throat-usually is going away in about a day or three; nasal symptoms include runny nose and congestion to follow, along with a cough by the fourth or fifth day. Also, fever is uncommon in adults but a slight fever is possible. For children fever they can have with their cold. * -With the symptoms above you can also have the nose that teems with watery nasal secretions for the first few days later these become thicker and darker. Dark mucus is natural and does not mean you have developed a bacterial infection, such as a sinus infection.
**Know several hundred different viruses may cause your cold symptoms. A virus cannot be treated with an antibiotic since antibiotics can only fight off bacterial infections.*
Now let’s review what we know now, which is the common cold and the types of flu (Types A,B, and C), we know their symptoms (the cold versus the flu), we even know The Flu statistics of how many are affected yearly with what complications can arise, based on Part 1 and part of Part 2. The most important part of this article is letting my readers know or be aware of factors in prevention. See Part 3 on Prevention of COLD OR FLU SIGNS/SYMPTOMS tomorrow Wed.