Flu Symptoms
What are your symptoms now? Is it the flu or the common cold? A vast majority of people do not know the difference and with experts warning that a flu pandemic is on the cards, early diagnosis is imperative to catching and treating it in the early stages so that you know exactly what you are up against.
Flu Symptoms Vs Common Cold Symptoms
As a start, the flu and the cold are caused by different viruses. The flu is caused by the influenza virus and the cold virus is the rhinotracheitis virus. The major difference is that you will know it when you get hit by the flu bug because it really wipes you out. The common cold virus isn't as potent and you can usually soldier on. But to be more specific :
Common Cold Symptoms
- you rarely get a fever with the common cold
- you will get a runny and stuffed up nose and possibly a mild chest discomfort
- you will be sneezing a lot and usually have a sore throat and have a hacking cough
- you may feel some muscular and joint aches and pains but it's not too severe and generally feel a bit tired
Flu Symptoms
- you will usually have a raging temperature for 3-4 days and have hot and cold spells (chills) you will ache all over and want to stay in bed all the time and feel extremely exhausted - this weakness can last 2-3 weeks
- headaches are common symptoms
- you will feel chest discomfort and tightness
- you may have a sore throat, slight runny nose and a cough
- may or may not get the 'gastric flu' which will often include gastrointestinal symptoms like diarrhea
NOTE : For children under 5, gastrointestinal symptoms seem to be more common and are accompanied by the high fever, fatigue and sore throat.
Flu - the dangers
If you have a chronic illness (eg diabetes, asthma, HIV) or are over 50 or have are immune compromised, then you are in a high risk category to developing complications when you catch the flu. A flu vaccination annually is recommended if you fall into any of those categories. If for some reason, you are in the high risk category and are exhibiting flu symptoms, see your doctor IMMEDIATELY as there is a treatment for the flu virus but it is only effective if administered within 48 hours of the first sign of flu symptoms.
Flu - what about the Bird Flu?
The flu virus doesn't just affect humans, birds get it too. Although most flu viruses will stay within a particular species ie bird flu viruses only affect birds and human flu viruses only affect humans. However, due to the ability of the virus to mutate (alter it's conformation - which is why you need to get the vaccination annually because the virus alters itself so much in a year that the antibiodies in your system from last year's vaccination wouldn't be effective against this year's flu bug - it just won't recognize the new bug anymore because it's changed so much), it can on occasion 'jump species' - which is what happened with the bird flu. That's also why it's so deadly - because your body and everyone else's for that matter wouldn't have 'seen' this particular strain of flu before and therefore it would cause more damage in your body than the normal human strain which your body is more accustomed to fight off.
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Flu symptoms