When is someone with a cold, flu, or COVID-19 contagious?

You must have been in this situation or have been close to someone with symptoms such as watery eyes, coughing, sneezing, scratchy throat, headaches, and in other cases mucus and body aches. At this time we usually ask ourselves this question: Coronavirus Or a simple cold, but what if it’s the flu, when am I contagious? Today we want to rid you of these doubts.

It’s not that simple, because as they explain newspaperthere are more than 200 viruses that cause colds, “Rhinovirus has about 100 variants and is the most common type, as 50% of colds are caused by rhinovirus.”

First, differentiate between influenza, cold and coronavirus.doctor Jose Maria Morerospokesperson of the working group Hispanic Association of Family and Community Medicine Diseases and Infections (semFYC), to explain it using the same medium, » Cold viruses usually affect the upper part of the respiratory tract, such as the nose and throat. Influenza viruses, on the other hand, prefer to attack the lower bronchial tubes and therefore tend to produce “severe, more severe symptoms, including cough, high fever, muscle and headaches, and severe congestion.”

How to differentiate between novel coronavirus, influenza or cold

In turn, influenza and coronavirus share many similarities, explains Juan Jesus HernandezPhD red cross health plan, «Flu usually presents with fever, but is often accompanied by sore throat, headache and muscle aches. However, this condition is uncommon among coronaviruses as it causes typical symptoms including fever, cough and respiratory distress, in addition to changes in physical characteristics.

my taste and smellfato, more common with coronaviruses but may also appear with flu symptoms »

and added, «If you have muscle pain, it could be the flu. “If you have a high fever, a severe cough and most importantly difficulty breathing, then you have coronavirus.” They advise that when in doubt, treat yourself as a suspected COVID-19 case.

About the time we can spread the cold “Two days before symptoms first appear to two or three days after symptoms appear.”explain Morero, It added that once this period is passed, even if there are symptoms, it is no longer contagious.

In the case of the flu, we can be infected from the day before symptoms appear, adults are still contagious for up to 7 days after getting sick, and for children, they can continue to be contagious for longer.

The spread of Covid is explained like this: ministry of health

estimate «It starts 2-3 days before the onset of symptoms, up to a few hours before the onset of symptoms; thereafter, it gradually decreases over the following week, with no cases of infection observed after 7 days after the onset of symptoms.