Flu season is back with a vengeance this year.
After Covid wiped out much of other respiratory diseases in 2020 and 2021, this year better known viruses are making a comeback at a rate officials haven’t seen in years.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is recording high levels of both influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) this flu season.
Experts have called the surge the worst the country has seen since the 2009 swine flu epidemic.
Covid is still on. The US has an average of 49,070 daily infections and 274 deaths.
In Los Angeles, officials are even considering returning an indoor mask mandate amid a recent spike in cases.
Each of these respiratory viruses share many symptoms and can easily be confused with one another.
But they also have unique symptoms that set them apart.
Given that all three diseases can harm people in similar ways, here’s the guide to finding out what’s really behind your runny nose, cough or pain.
The graphic shows: Common (green tick), occasional (orange circle) and never (red cross) symptoms of cold, hay fever and Covid
Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV)
The often-overlooked RSV took the US by storm this fall, is widespread among children and has filled hospitals across the country.
The CDC reports that the virus infected 15,843 Americans in the week ended November 19.
It is most dangerous for young children, causing between 300 and 500 deaths each year, according to the CDC.
The respiratory virus is also a danger to adults over 65, although less so than Covid or influenza.
Runny nose, coughing, sneezing and shortness of breath are typical symptoms of the virus, the top authority said.
While children often also experience fever and loss of appetite when infected, these symptoms are less common in adults with symptomatic RSV cases.
Unlike other respiratory viruses, RSV does not cause significant stomach problems.
Symptoms such as loss of smell and taste, diarrhea, nausea and vomiting are usually not associated with the condition.
People suffering from gastrointestinal problems are likely suffering from another non-Covid respiratory disease.
While a person suffering from RSV will sometimes experience pain or fatigue during the day, officials say these symptoms are less common.
In the most severe cases, a young child may develop inflammation of the small airways in the lungs – called bronchiolitis – or pneumonia – an infection of the lungs.
covid
Los Angeles warns indoor MASK MANDATE could be reinstated within weeks as Covid cases surge
Masks will become mandatory at halls in Los Angeles in the coming weeks as Democratic officials panic over rising Covid cases.
The county’s Covid response policy says a mask mandate will be triggered after a period of “high” Covid transmission. In previous cases, the period was set at 14 days.
Los Angeles County records 3,186 daily Covid infections, a big increase from the 1,000 daily cases recorded in early November. It also records eight deaths every day.
dr LA County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said Thursday that the location was moving from “low” to “moderate” Covid transmission. If trends in cases and hospitalizations continue, they will be “high” by next week, she warned.
“We would say again our healthcare system is stressed, we need to slow transmission,” said Dr. Ferrer during a press conference on Thursday.
She didn’t specify when exactly the masks would return, but she had previously set a deadline of two weeks.
“We need to look at the rate of increase and what we’re seeing in that regard to decide in what timeframe [to reinstate masks] would be,” she added.
The Southern California county, home to nearly 10 million residents, only dropped its mask order in March.
At the start of the pandemic, people were told to look out for three warning signs of Covid: loss of taste or smell, persistent cough and fever.
But as new variants evolved and vaccines and repeated waves mitigated the threat of the virus, the official list of symptoms continued to grow.
Officials now recognize 12 symptoms linked to Covid.
According to the UK’s ZOE Symptom Tracking Study, the most commonly reported signs of the virus are now a runny nose (66 percent), sore throat (65 percent), headache (64 percent), persistent cough (63 percent) and fatigue (62 percent).
But because of the range of symptoms and the high prevalence of the virus, Professor Tim Spector, an epidemiologist at King’s College London who led the study, is encouraging people to get tested anyway.
The virus is still circulating in America, but not nearly as rapidly as in previous winters.
The country records around 50,000 infections a day, half of the 100,000 were recorded in early December 2021.
Covid’s most unique feature is the complete loss of smell or taste, known as anosmia, which is rarely reported in the common cold and hay fever.
Harvard University researchers published a study in July 2020 showing that the virus enters blood vessel cells and stem cells in the nose, which power the nerves that transmit a sense of smell to the brain.
However, Omicron is less likely to cause the loss of taste or smell because the variant replicates deeper in the lungs than the nose, experts believe.
Of the more recent symptoms listed for Covid, only diarrhea and nausea or vomiting are unique to the virus and are not caused by RSV or the common cold.
It suggests that if you have these as well as a cough it may well be Covid.
Officials are telling people to stay home and avoid contact with other people if they have symptoms of Covid.
a cold
The common cold can affect people all year round but is most prevalent in winter.
Two years of lockdown has reduced people’s immunity to colds. That had sparked a wave of colds across America this year, as experts warn the “immune-naïve” population is ripe for spreading the virus.
The CDC reported 32,733 new influenza cases in the week ended Nov. 26 — the highest total for the 2022 season.
Coughs, sore throats, runny or stuffy noses, and sneezing are the most common symptoms caused by hundreds of viruses that cause the common cold.
Pain, fever, headache, fatigue, and loss of appetite can also be telltale signs, while loss of taste or smell is also an occasional symptom.
The lack of swollen, puffy eyes could be a sign that you actually have a cold rather than a seasonal allergy.
Meanwhile, any diarrhea, nausea or shortness of breath on top of the previous symptoms could indicate it is indeed Covid and not a simple cold that you have.
Symptoms are caused when one of 200 different viruses causes inflammation of the membranes lining the nose and throat.
They’re not actually caused by cold weather, but the body is more susceptible to infection when the immune system is weakened – which can be caused by a drop in temperature.
Marc Donovan, chief pharmacist at Boots UK, told Web: “Cold colds can also strike in the warmer months and usually involve sneezing and coughing, along with a sore throat, headache and sometimes a loss of taste and smell.
“You might consider taking painkillers to relieve pain, or relieving a stuffy nose with a decongestant nasal spray or decongestant tablets.”