Cold Or Flu? You Decide

A new leaflet from the NHS - Handy Advice about Flu and Colds can help you decide whether you have a cold or flu as well as help you understand and manage your symptoms this Self Care Week.

On average, adults can expect two colds a year and children as many as ten, until they develop immunity. Sometimes bad colds can be mistaken for flu, but how do you tell the difference?

Flu's biggest symptom is a sudden high temperature of over 38 degrees Celsius and a sudden cough. Other symptoms include headache, chills, aching muscles, limb or joint pain, sore throat, runny nose, sneezing, loss of appetite and diarrhoea or stomach upset.

A cold on the other hand may present some of the same symptoms but these will appear at different stages. Usually, with a cold adults will not run a high temperature, but children might.

If you have flu this is the time when you will have a high temperature and symptoms that come on quickly. You will be shivering with a headache, muscle aches in the back and legs and you may feel dizzy. The high temperature should go down within 48 hours.

If you have a cold, this is the incubation stage, and there are no symptoms to tell you that you have been infected.

If you have flu, your temperature should be dropping now and from here on your symptoms will be similar to those you get with colds.

If you have a cold, the first signs appear on day two with a tickle or soreness in the nose and/or throat and sometimes in the eyes. The sore throat gets worse and a dry cough might start. You start sneezing and your nose starts to run.

From day three the symptoms for both flu and colds are very similar. The discharge from the nose may change from clear and watery to thicker and yellowish in colour. Your nose starts to feel very stuffy and blocked up, and you might get pain in the forehead and around and behind the eyes. If the infection is a really nasty one, adults may still have a slight fever.

Try not to attend A&E as there's nothing the healthcare professionals can do for colds and flu and you run the risk of spreading the virus to other patients.

The best thing you can do is rest, drink plenty of fluids and help ease sore throats with cough lozenges, mixtures or sprays. Make sure you check with your pharmacist whether any cold or flu remedies can be used with medication you're already taking.