Cold and fever can make you miss many good moments of life. Most of us suffer from some common symptoms or different cold allergies like cough, sneezing, headache, sore throat, nasal and chest congestion, or fever due to viral infection. The similar symptoms of these two viral infections cause many misconceptions that they match closely. However, the flu is quite different from the common cold. This difference between flu and cold must be understood so that one can seek relevant treatments of these two viral infections or allergy symptoms. Flu is mainly associated with sudden fever, which is less common in the common cold. Let us highlight the different symptoms of flu and cold to understand the difference between these two viral allergies.

 

A cold begins when the cold virus infects the body via the throat or nose, especially when someone is exposed to an infected person. However, the main cause of the common cold or the prime infectious agent or any cold viral causes no fever in adults. This is why the common cold is also called a viral infection.

The common symptoms of a cold begin with a sore throat, which further continues with a runny nose, nasal congestion, cough, and chest congestion in some cases. Children may develop a fever, though fever is usually absent in adults. Different allergies like earache due to viral infection in ear and symptoms of headache are also common in common cold. These allergies or viral cold infections of the common cold might persist for seven to 10 days. Immediate treatments are necessary to eradicate these troubling cold allergies or to restrict the viral infection from causing severe health ailments.

The Flu and its Symptoms

Though flu and cold are both viral infections causing similar kind of allergies and they share some common symptoms, flu is caused by the influenza virus. Its symptoms cause sudden fever in the patient, which is absent in the common cold.

This influenza virus attacks a person swiftly, causing a viral infection or flu that further generates varied allergies like sneezing, cough, and different symptoms like fever ranging between 100 to 104 degrees Fahrenheit, headache, tiredness, sweating, and muscle and joint aches. These symptoms arise after a couple of days of the actual viral infection and might persist for weeks. In more severe cases, the viral infected person might also get pneumonia, especially young children and babies, necessitating immediate hospitalization. Therefore, in case fever rises very high or persists beyond a day, seek a doctor’s advice.
 

Though symptoms of both flu and cold start with mild affects, they may progress to a severe state in two to three days of the allergy or viral infection. Necessary precautions are also required to prevent flu and cold and the various allergies caused by these two viral infections. Though flu and cold might not always cause serious health problems, it is advisable to seek expert treatment if symptoms of cold and fever continue for more than two or three days. Left untreated, even a mild fever or cold allergies might cause admission into the hospital. Seek early treatment and be safe from flu and cold.