Breaking out the tissues? It’s that time of year! But what kind of sickness do your symptoms point to?
As the weather changes, we can start feeling under the weather too — but while each illness has a typical set of symptoms, it’s important to understand you can’t diagnose on your own, Dr. Céline Gounder, CBS News medical contributor and editor-at-large for public health at KFF Health News, said on “CBS Mornings” Wednesday.
“If you come in with some symptoms of cough or sore throat or runny nose, whatever it is, I can’t tell you if that’s a cold, if it’s walking pneumonia, if it’s COVID or the flu. You do need to test,” she said.
The good news? Tests are available.
“Since the pandemic, we now have tests that cover all the most common viral and bacterial respiratory infections, making it easy to test for all with one swab,” Gounder said.
Determining your exact illness through testing also helps decide on the best course of treatment.
“We have specific treatments for influenza (Tamiflu, Xofluza), COVID (Paxlovid), ‘walking pneumonia’ (azithromycin), and other infections, and testing helps guide that treatment,” she added.
Signs of COVID 2024
The COVID variant called XEC making headlines in 2024 was spotted around the world and in half of states across the United States last month, but a spokesperson for the CDC said the agency is “not aware of any specific symptoms associated with XEC or any other co-circulating SARS-CoV-2 lineage.”
While symptoms can vary depending on vaccination status, those with COVID can expect symptoms including but not limited to:
- Cough
- Congestion or runny nose
- Diarrhea
- Fever or chills
- Shortness of breath
- Loss of taste or smell
- Sore throat
- Fatigue
Americans are now eligible for free COVID test kits mailed to their homes. According to COVIDtests.gov, U.S. households will be able to order up to four free COVID-19 nasal swab tests through the federal program.
COVID vs flu symptoms
According to the CDC, flu symptoms often include:
- Fever
- Cough
- Sore throat
- Runny or stuffy nose
- Body aches
- Headaches
- Fatigue
Some people may have vomiting and diarrhea, though this is more common in children than adults.
“It’s important to note that not everyone with flu will have a fever, others may feel feverish or have chills,” the CDC adds. “Flu signs and symptoms usually come on suddenly.”
Earlier this month, the Food and Drug Administration authorized the Healgen Scientific’s Rapid Check COVID-19/Flu A&B Antigen Test for home use without a prescription, which makes it easier for people to simultaneously test themselves for COVID-19 and the flu on their own.
This is helpful because some of the symptoms are the same, the CDC reiterates, meaning you “cannot tell the difference between flu and COVID-19 by symptoms alone.”
Cold symptoms
Unlike abrupt flu symptoms, the onset of cold symptoms is usually gradual, according to the CDC, and can include:
- Runny nose or nasal congestion
- Cough
- Sneezing
- Sore throat
- Headache
- Mild body aches
Compared to the flu, fever is rare, but low grade fevers can also occur, usually in older children and adults.
“The signs and symptoms of a cold usually peak within 2 to 3 days of infection,” the CDC adds.
Walking pneumonia, RSV and whooping cough
Colds and flu aren’t the only illnesses to be aware of this season. Walking pneumonia, for example, is on the rise among young kids.
The number of two- to four-year-olds diagnosed after visiting the ER for pneumonia related illnesses has jumped from 1% to 7% in the last months, according to the CDC.
Walking pneumonia, known scientifically as mycoplasma pneumonia, is a the kind of bacterial pneumonia that includes symptoms such as sore throat, chest pain and fever in younger kids, Gounder said.
“We do sometimes see vomiting and diarrhea, which are a little bit atypical,” she added.
Whooping cough is also up among school-aged kids, with about four times as many cases this year compared to last year.
The illness is especially dangerous for infants and young kids because of their small airways, CBS News chief medical correspondent Dr. Jon LaPook recently explained on “CBS Mornings Plus.”
“The reason why it’s called whooping cough — it’s a cough, cough, cough, cough, and then they gasp for air, that’s the whoop,” he said. “As an adult, when you get it, you may be sick, but probably going to be OK in terms of moving air in and out of your body. With infants, airways are so small that they can really have trouble breathing at all.”
RSV, or respiratory syncytial virus, affects the upper respiratory system with a runny or stuffy nose as well as a cough or sore throat.
When the virus moves to the lower airways into the bronchi or the lungs, pneumonia or bronchitis can develop, which can be more dangerous.
Most adults recover from RSV within one to two weeks, but children and infants are affected differently because of their smaller airways and underdeveloped immune systems.
Testing is also important here, since “there is no way to know if it is RSV, COVID or the flu” based off of symptoms alone, Gounder had said previously. There is no at-home RSV test available, but a pediatrician can test children through a nasal swab.
