Home Disease Differences between Cold and Flu

Differences between Cold and Flu


Did you know that up to 20% of adults have a flu and two or three colds each year?

In the case of children this number increases.

We often use the terms cold and flu interchangeably, but they are completely different diseases with their own set of symptoms.

What is the difference between a cold and the flu?

Common colds are annoying, but they are not usually very serious. This is not the case in the case of the flu.

Did you know that the flu causes more than 24,000 deaths and about 200,000 hospitalizations each year?


The cold.

Cold symptoms include: sore throat, congestion, sneezing and coughing.

Colds tend to start very gradually. It can start with a mild sore throat and then congestion appear. And one or two days later, the cough.


The flu.

Symptoms of the flu include: fever, chills, pain throughout the body and fatigue, high fever (over 38ºC).

The flu is very different. It has a sudden onset, severe and abrupt. In one minute you feel good and the next, you feel as if you had “passed a truck over.”

The flu can be treated with antiviral drugs, which should be taken when the first signs of the disease begin. These drugs shorten both the course of the disease and the severity of its symptoms.


Do not take antibiotics.

Antibiotics are not effective against the common cold or the flu. They only serve to treat bacterial diseases, and both the common cold and the flu are caused by viruses and not bacteria.

The main problem of using antibiotics for the treatment of the cold is that they cause unnecessary and harmful side effects, and their excessive use can cause the development of resistance to antibiotics.



Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here