timwhit
Hairy Aussie
Which one of the two causes you to vomit? I always thought it was the flu...
Most evil software company
- Thread starter Mercutio
- Start date
timwhit
Hairy Aussie
Forgot to ask, what are the gestation periods for a cold and flu? And how long does a typical strain last?
Adcadet
Storage Freak
vomiting is usually associated with what is called the "stomach flu," which isn't related to influenza in any way. This is a total misnomer.
As far as the differential diagnosis of influenza vs. a cold....I think e_dawg's response is the method most commonly used. I know there are influenza antigen tests (ELISA), and at least experimentally there are PCR-based tests. Colds rarely produce a fever, at least not a significant fever. Influenza does. Sneezing, stuffiness, and a sore throat are more common in colds than influenza.
You can have symptoms for two weeks or more. One gets symptomatic with influenza 1-4 days after contact with the virus, some people are contageous for over a week. And typically a strain will be circulating in the population for the entire flu season (November-April, looking back over infuenza prevalence charts).
Just an FYI - the CDC has some great info on influenza, and many other diseases. Check out www.cdc.gov and hit the "Diseases A to Z" for some good information. What I like about the CDC is that they have info for the common person and for the health care professional, often allowing somebody who's really interested to dig deeper and to learn what the pros are told (epidemiology-wise at least)
As far as the differential diagnosis of influenza vs. a cold....I think e_dawg's response is the method most commonly used. I know there are influenza antigen tests (ELISA), and at least experimentally there are PCR-based tests. Colds rarely produce a fever, at least not a significant fever. Influenza does. Sneezing, stuffiness, and a sore throat are more common in colds than influenza.
You can have symptoms for two weeks or more. One gets symptomatic with influenza 1-4 days after contact with the virus, some people are contageous for over a week. And typically a strain will be circulating in the population for the entire flu season (November-April, looking back over infuenza prevalence charts).
Just an FYI - the CDC has some great info on influenza, and many other diseases. Check out www.cdc.gov and hit the "Diseases A to Z" for some good information. What I like about the CDC is that they have info for the common person and for the health care professional, often allowing somebody who's really interested to dig deeper and to learn what the pros are told (epidemiology-wise at least)
Explorer
Learning Storage Performance
Vomiting is just AOfuL. Of course, America On HoLd is far worse!
AOHeL
e_dawg
Storage Freak
And back to our original topic, Real is up there for me.
Buck
Storage? I am Storage!
e_dawg said:
I feel that way every morning when it is time to get up.
I may have experienced influenza this past October. It came on hard and fast, wiping me out like I hadn't been wiped out in years. It started on a Friday afternoon with my usual symptom of a sore throat (sore throat from post-nasal drip). By Saturday morning I had a high fever that didn't break until that evening after 8:00, despite the medication I started taking. The fever came and went for the next three days and the after affects of terrible sinus pain, ear pain, and teeth pain (all related to sinus pressure of course) didn't go away for two weeks. Several people that I came in contact with were infected as I had been.
The reason why I’m guessing that this was influenza was because of the severity of the symptoms and the way it affected me for months after that. I got sick two more times (much less severe, more like a cold) after that, it seemed as if my immune system was negatively impacted for quite some time.
But, considering I didn’t see a doctor, I could be way off and just not realize how painful the common cold can be.
Buck
Storage? I am Storage!
As e-dawg so rightly pointed out, we should be back on topic. I picked AOL. I've made my sentiments regarding their software that I refer to as a virus clear in other threads, so I'll spare everyone the pain and boredom of reading it again.