It can be tricky to work out whether you have a cold or flu as both have similar symptoms such as a blocked nose, sore throat, cough, and headache. One of the best ways to differentiate between a cold or flu is the time of onset of your symptoms. In the early stages of a cold, the symptoms are mild (sneezing, runny nose, watery eyes, sore throat, and maybe a mild fever), building up slowly over a couple of days. However, with the flu, there is a rapid onset to feeling unwell. You may have got up in the morning feeling fine, but by lunchtime feel quite unwell with aches and pains, fever or a chill, and fatigue that seemed to come out of nowhere. A cold can make you feel pretty miserable but tends to last only between 3 to 10 days. Flu symptoms can make you feel so unwell that you need bed rest to recover, and the symptoms can linger for one to two weeks. The fatigue and exhaustion that coincide with the flu sometimes carry on for much longer, up to several weeks.
Complications as a result of a cold can be sinus congestion or a middle ear infection. Antibiotics may be needed if a cold does not seem to improve after about seven days. Complications that come from having the flu can be sinusitis, bronchitis, ear infections, pneumonia, and the flu can be life-threatening if severe.
Unfortunately, there is no vaccine to prevent the common cold, but having an annual flu vaccination can help to prevent catching the flu or minimise your symptoms.
