Deccanexpress : The winter season normally brings cold and cough to lot of people, in such a situation it would be difficult to differentiate between coronavirus and normal flu infection symptoms. The symptoms of both diseases are almost the same. It can be only identified after conducting a test.
The Coronavirus and flu both have similar have symptoms such as body pain, throat pain, fever, cough, shortness of breath, tiredness and headache. However, an alternate to testing, scientists claimed, looking at just two symptoms, one l can recognize the difference between COVID-19 and flu. Doctors say that usually in a flu infection a person starts falling ill within a week. Whereas in COVID-19, one can fall ill for two to three weeks or more. There have been many such cases around the world, where even after three weeks, people have not been able to recover.
Another one is the sense, the person loses the power to smell and identify taste when infected with COVID-19. While this never happens when there is flu. However, not all patients infected with coronavirus had senseless symptoms.
Dr. Daniel Solomon of Boston’s Medical Hospital and School, Boston, says that it is possible that a person is prone to both diseases at the same time. In such a situation, you may have to undergo tests for both diseases instead of one. If you are thinking of getting a single test, then keep in mind to test for illness which is strongly spreading in your locality.
According to a report by ‘Public Health England’ (PHE), the risk of death of a human being almost doubled (Coronavirus death risk) when combined with COVID-19 and flu infection. PHE’s report says that between January 20 and April 25, 20,000 such cases were reported in the country, where patients were found infected with both flu and COVID-19. Most of these patients were in critical condition. 43% people died here due to this combination of infection.
Dr. Solomon says that the community transmission of influenza has not been seen yet, so there is no widespread testing of the flu. Flu and COVID-19 both spread through droplets coming out of the mouth and nose. Both infect humans before they become ill.
A person starts falling ill within one to four days of flu infection. While the symptoms of corona virus may take 2 to 14 days to appear. Flu treatment is based on the type of virus. While there is no vaccine available for the corona virus yet. Trial is going on on many vaccines worldwide.