Flu Season & How Viruses Work
Cold, flu and covid-19 season is upon us and we all know it's a thing but it's something we generally actually know little about. In true human fashion our memory for past learning experiences is very short and the lessons that the covid outbreak of 2020 taught us are quickly fading and we are back to old habits. So I thought I would take this time to explain how a virus works, its timeline and some considerations that I believe we should keep in mind when dealing with viral infection, so that you can keep yourself and loved ones safe this fall.
Influenza:
Influenza and its variants are upper respiratory infections that are a bit more rare but there are more common variants. Influenza is a viral infection with a 1-4 day incubation period and can be infectious 1 day before symptoms onset and up to 7 days after symptoms start. Symptoms can last from 1-2 weeks. This virus can last up to 8 hours outside the body on the right surface.
Symptoms include: fever, chills, cough, runny nose, body aches, fatigue, with vomiting and diarrhea being more rare.
Rhinovirus:
Rhinovirus is the common cold, which is an upper respiratory viral infection. This is the most common infection here and is something everyone has experienced at one point in time. Its incubation period can be very short ranging from 2-4 days. This virus is infectious up to 2 days before you notice symptoms and for as long as symptoms are present and can live for up to 3 hours outside the body.
Symptoms include: sore throat, runny nose, coughing, sneezing, watery eyes, headaches and body aches.
Covid-19:
Covid-19 and its variants are another upper respiratory respiratory viral infection. This has become quite common since 2020 and can have quite severe health ramifications especially if your immune system is already compromised. It has an incubation period that can last up to 14 days after exposure and can be infectious up to 3 days before you start experiencing symptoms and up to 10 days after your first symptoms and for some, even longer than this.
Symptoms include: fever, chills, cough, shortness of breath, sore throat, congestion, runny nose, loss of taste or smell, fatigue, body aches, headache, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea.
As you can see there is some overlap in symptoms so it can be hard to tell at first what virus you might be infected with. You can test with a rapid test at home to see if you have covid-19 and this is quite accurate if you are experiencing symptoms, as this is when antigen levels are at their highest, making the test much more reliable. Antigens are protein markers on the virus cells that trigger the immune system reaction and help distinguish it from our body's cells. If you are asymptomatic (not experiencing symptoms), there is a good chance your antigen levels won't be high enough to produce a positive result with your rapid test. This does not mean that you don't have the virus and you can in fact still be contagious. So if you know that you have been exposed but are not expressing symptoms, getting a negative test response does not mean that you haven't been infected as well. You might just be in the incubation period.
Every virus has an incubation period. This is where you have contracted the virus and it is slowly building within you. In this phase, the immune system is already mounting a response to attack the virus. Every virus has a different incubation period and this is what makes spreading viruses so tricky because it is during these last few days of incubation, before start expressing symptoms, that you are the most infectious. So you don't know that you've been exposed and you keep doing your things (ie. attending events, parties and social gatherings), unknowing of the battle within. By the time you know that you're sick, you may have shared it with 5, 10, 20 or perhaps hundreds of people. But you don't have any control in this situation. You didn't know.
If you do know that you were exposed, your wife or your child or perhaps a co-worker is sick, you now have a responsibility to keep others safe from you. In this instance, you know that you have been exposed and could be sick but other people do not. And now if you go to a social event, you are knowingly possibly exposing people to the virus without their knowledge. Covid-19 may not be that scary for most people, but one of the things I've learned in my healthcare career is that everyone has an inner health story and this is something that we don't usually share with others. When we go to that sporting event, or that bake sale, or social gathering, we don't know who has a compromised immune system. We don't know who is battling an autoimmune disease or cancer or any number of other pathologies that can negatively impact the immune system's ability to mount a proper defense. I believe in caring for those I don't know in a way that I would care for those I love most dearly. I would never knowingly expose my Grandma to covid-19 so why would I do so to anyone else.
If you know you've been exposed to any one of the aforementioned illnesses, stay home, cancel your plans for a week or preferably two. It's just two weeks of your life and it could save someone else's. When you know you're safe, you can get back to all the things you love. It's not about missing out, it's about caring for others. Not everyone is healthy and we can all help each other. This is what I had hoped we would learn and carry forward from the pandemic. The ability to show love for those you don't even know. Hopefully this will help you understand how these viruses work and how we can help each other have a safer and illness-free fall.