With the seasons changing, and children now well into their new school year, viruses such as colds, flu, and covid are on the rise again.
But with sniffles and bugs being so common at the moment, it can be tricky to differentiate between the three. Especially as many people who contract each of the viruses complain about having similar symptoms.
However, some more specific signs may signal your sickness is caused by one illness rather than the other.
READ MORE: Key signs that suggest your sore throat is covid and not a cold
Professor Tim Spector, co-founder of the King’s College ZOE symptom tracker app, said some two third of people who have covid experience a sore throat as their first warning sign. Prof Spector also said there are currently around three times as many people with colds as with covid in the UK.
He added: “Fever and loss of smell are really rare now – so many old people may not think they’ve got covid and would say it’s a cold and not be tested.”
The following symptoms are also commonly being reported:
- Runny nose
- Headache
- Sneezing
- Persistent cough
Professor Denis Kinane, noted immunologist and founding scientist at Cignpost Diagnostics, has suggested a way to work out the difference between a sore throat brought on by covid, compared to that with cold or flu.
Professor Kinane further explored the characteristics of a sore throat from covid helping a person distinguish between the virus and a common cold:
- Covid sore throat usually appears in the first week of illness and can improve quite quickly.
- Compared to other sore throats, when it is caused by covid, it feels worse on the first day of infection but gets better on each following day.
- A sore throat lasts no more than five days, and it is usually mild.
- Anyone who suffers from sore throat for over five days should get themselves tested for some other illness.
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