COVID-19 vs. Flu vs. RSV: How to tell the difference between respiratory infections

so you want to know how can you tell the difference between cold RSV flu and covid so respiratory synthetial virus which is RSV flu and covid are sending people to hospital emergency rooms this winter and this includes children influenza and RSV are spreading earlier than usual and at record rates most people were able to avoid the flu in RSV for the past few years because of the population as a whole was taking measures to slow the spread of covid which also slowed the spread of these other viruses it's likely that our immunity to these viruses may have weighed during that time and many children born during the pandemic were never exposed to these viruses and thus never gained any immunity to them so now we're seeing an explosion of all these respiratory viruses this winter it's also possible that you could get sicker as a result of the immune system not really being challenged over the last few years so the common cold flu RSV covered they all have overlapping symptoms also not all common colds are mild the vast majority are mild but some common cold viruses can be detrimental for example human metanumovirus and COPD patients causes significant problems regardless common cold viruses along with flu RSV and covid can all cause symptoms of fatigue cough fever sore throat runny nose or stuffy nose meaning congestion headaches and muscle aches nausea vomiting and diarrhea and even shortness of breath and yes loss of sense of taste or smell but certain symptoms are definitely more common for each virus so looking at the pattern of symptoms can clue you into the diagnosis the other clue comes from looking at how quickly symptoms develop flu symptoms come on quickly usually just one day after being exposed to someone who's been sick it's that hit by a truck feeling so adults Afflicted with the flu are likely to experience very high fevers up to 103 or 104 degrees Fahrenheit but fevers rarely accompany colds especially in adults with colds symptoms take two to three days to appear and are much milder covid and RSV have even longer incubation periods and symptoms develop much slower so for covid it's typically three to five days of incubation period from the time of exposure to the time to get symptoms especially with these new variants and then for RSV it's about four to six days for both covid and RSV the symptoms typically start out as feeling congested with a runny nose and then a cough and a headache the next day and then possibly a fever the following day now if a fever does occur with these viruses with covet and RSV it's typically a low-grade fever it used to be that loss of smell or taste was the main way to distinguish covid from the other respiratory viral infections but now that only happens in 16 percent of the cases with these current covid variants the five most commonly reported symptoms of these new coveted variants are fatigue sore throat runny nose persistent cough and headache people with RSV infections are less likely to feel that full body fatigue and muscle aches that come along with flu and covid RSV usually has a very wet and forceful cough it tends to cause more mucus so we're talking lots of congestion and lots of nasty crap that you're bringing up now on the flip side the new variants of covid they they tend to cause a more dry cough another big distinction between RSV especially when it comes to Children is wheezing so wheezing is a high pitched whistling sound when exhaling and there's other less common symptoms that can help you differentiate between these different viral illnesses for example with flu and covid they can cause nausea vomiting and diarrhea and are especially more likely to cause those symptoms in children ultimately in order to get the diagnosis you need to be tested so let's say you take a home Cova test and it comes back negative you might be wondering if it's the common cold is it flu is it RSV but flu and RSV these are tests that have to be conducted in a medical testing facility and when it comes to young children just know that they tend to experience more severe symptoms of the flu in RSV because their immune systems don't yet know how to properly fight off these viruses infants and toddlers have smaller Airways which makes it easier for them to be very congested and makes it more likely that they're going to have difficulty with breathing and their illness can very easily progress from mild to severe and very short amount of time so whenever there's trouble breathing that's a red flag that you need to get that person that infant that toddler whoever it is to the ER and if you have the flu and you want to know how you can recover faster definitely check out this video right here

Channel: Doctor Mike Hansen

Views: 261,696

Keywords: COVID, Flu and RSV, Is it Covid, flu or RSV?, Suffering from flu RSV or COVID-19?

Id: P_ffUuuID1Q

Length: 4min 19sec (259 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 20 2022