You’re sick: How to tell if it’s a cold, flu or COVID-19

You spike a fever, start coughing and develop shortness of breath.

Is it COVID-19, the flu or the common cold?

“This is a difficult distinction to make,” said Dr. Iahn Gonsenhauser, Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center’s chief quality and patient safety officer.

Cold and flu season generally starts in October and can go as late as May, with flu activity peaking between December and February.

All three illnesses are caused by respiratory viruses and share some of the same symptoms, but they can have very different outcomes.

Typical symptoms of a cold include cough, sore throat, nasal congestion, and sneezing, which often come on gradually.

Influenza can cause these symptoms as well, but usually also includes fever or chills, fatigue and headache. The most unique symptom is head-to-toe body aches, Gonsenhauser said.

Some people, especially children, also have gastrointestinal issue such as nausea or diarrhea, said Dr. Joseph Gastaldo, Ohiohealth’s medical director for

infectious diseases. Flu symptoms tend to come on more suddenly and are typically more severe than those for colds.

COVID-19 symptoms commonly include a dry cough, fever or chills, and shortness of breath. But people report a wide range of other symptoms, including headaches just like with the flu but which are rarely seen with a cold, Gastaldo said.

One of the things that sets COVID-19 apart from the other two illnesses is loss of taste or smell, Gonsenhauser said. People may also get rashes or lesions on their fingers or toes. And many people have no symptoms at all, he said.

Common colds usually resolve on their own in about a week without treatment. Most people with influenza or COVID-19 recover within a couple of weeks, but these illnesses can lead to more serious health conditions and can be fatal, especially for people who are older or immunocompromised, said Gonsenhauser, which is why he recommends seeing a doctor if your symptoms are severe.

“There are potentially very serious repercussions if we are self-diagnosing and misdiagnosing,” he added, suggesting that people let a health care professional make a diagnosis.

Young children are more likely to have severe flu symptoms but are at lower risk for severe COVID-19, said Dr. Dane Snyder, section chief of Nationwide Children’s division of primary care pediatrics.

But because there are no real signature symptoms of COVID-19 for children like loss of smell or taste as there are for adults, Dane recommends parents talk to their pediatrician about possibly getting a COVID test if their children are showing symptoms.

That’s especially true if they’ve been near someone with coronavirus or have been in an area where lots of people have reported to have gotten coronavirus, he said.

There are a lot of questions swirling around about this year’s flu season including how contagious and dangerous this year’s flu strain will be, how will it interact with COVID-19 and what might happen if a person gets both the flu and COVID-19.

But one thing is for certain: it has never been more important to get your flu shot, Gonsenhauser said.

“I want everybody to get the flu shot because if you do have symptoms of influenza and COVID-19 and if you have the flu shot, statistically there’s a lower likelihood that it’s going to be the flu and a potentially higher likelihood that it’s going to be COVID-19,” Gastaldo said. mhenry@dispatch.com @megankhenry

ADAM CAIRNS In this file photo, physician assistant Jennifer Krzmarzick talks to a patient in their car after performing a swab test for COVID-19 at Mt. Carmel East hospital on the Far East Side on April 3.