Cold, flu, coronavirus? How to tell the difference and when to take the test.

The coming winter months can be a confusing time for sick people. Influenza and common I catch a cold as with the coronavirus Start rising again in New Jersey..

How can you understand which of the various respiratory infections you have and when you should be tested? We sought advice from three New Jersey medical and health professionals.

Dr. Lawrence Kleinmann, chief of the Department of Population Health, Quality and Implementation Science (PopQuIS) at Rutgers University, said that there is a lot of overlap in symptoms between these highly contagious diseases, and it is the distinction between them. Say it might be difficult.

The· Coronavirus And influenza He said there are many similarities and it may be the most difficult to diagnose without testing.

Both generally share symptoms of cough, fever, chills, sore throat, stuffy nose and stuffy nose, muscle and body pain, headache, and malaise. However, coronavirus-specific symptoms include diarrhea, loss of taste and smell, and difficulty breathing.

Colds usually cause runny nose, stuffy nose, sneezing, and sore throat, but there is no fever. According to Kleinman, the symptoms are usually milder and shorter-lived than the flu and coronavirus.

Dr. Anatofine Gold, an associate professor of pediatrics at Rowan University’s Cooper Medical School and head of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Division at Cooper University Healthcare, said young children may be worse off with influenza than coronavirus. It says it is expensive.

“They may have a higher fever. They may be more unpleasant in the sense that they have more chills and more pain. Comparing the flu with COVID-19, the flu Children with the flu generally get sick, “says Feingold.

However, because the symptoms are so overlapping, testing is the only way to find out the cause of the disease.

Dr. Sandra Adams, a professor of biology at the University of Montclair, suggests that people be tested if they are careless and feel sick.

She said fear of limited inspection supplies has diminished since the pandemic began. It should not guide a person’s decision to visit a doctor. She said that if more people get inside during the colder months, the number of cases can spike and testing becomes more important.

“The average person can’t tell the difference between influenza and COVID-19,” Adams said. “If you find a combination of fever, cough and malaise, you can’t tell if it’s flu or COVID. I think I’ll take the test.”

Obtaining a nasal swab is important to keep yourself and others safe.

According to Kleinman, authorities can perform contact tracing by confirming that they are infected with the coronavirus, even if the symptoms are mild. It’s also helpful to know if you or your child is infected if your family is at high risk of serious complications from COVID-19, such as diabetes and asthma, Finegold said. I will.

She said the children should always stay home if they are ill.

“The question is, if (your child) is positive, are you going to do something different?” She said. “The reason we know the flu is because we have the option of treating it with antivirals to shorten the flu. The COVID test is positive and we rarely do anything other than treat the patient symptomatologically.”

“If they have a fever, it’s a serious illness and there are people at risk in their homes, it may make a difference (to be tested),” says Feingold. I did.

According to Kleinman, he can get both the coronavirus and the flu, or other illnesses. In California, authorities last week reported the first case of a person who tested positive for influenza and COVID-19.

Therefore, Kleinman says doctors may want to test for coronavirus, flu, and streptococcal pharyngitis if the patient has symptoms associated with all three.

“Our instinct as a doctor is for you to look for the cause. Once you know the cause, you can almost always stop the symptom because it is a single cause … with coronavirus, it’s complicated. It will increase, “he said.

According to Feinberg, it is important to get vaccinated this year for several reasons.

The vaccine is made up of four types of inactivated influenza, Finegold said. Vaccinated strains are the most common strains prevalent in countries in the Southern Hemisphere that have already passed winter, which allows your body to pre-form antibodies against those strains.

She said the vaccine reduces the chances of getting the flu and helps someone answer the question of whether it’s the flu or COVID-19. She also said it would help reduce the number of hospitalizations for the flu and prevent overwhelming medical centers.

“Every year, during the flu season, beds are filled with people at high risk and those with underlying illnesses,” she said. “We provide medical services to people with COVID because we want to minimize the number of flu patients we can prevent. There are many reasons to get the flu vaccine.”

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