Omicron, cold or flu? Here’s why symptoms don’t always make all the difference | Health

Omicron – the new, highly transmissible variant of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus – has taken the world by storm, increasing the daily number of Covid-19 to exceptional measures. Although there is currently a debate among public health professionals and infectious disease experts as to how the Omicron variant is truly “gentle” on humans, a number of studies have suggested that its weak attack on the lungs could make it less dangerous than the other, more fatal variants that came before, such as Delta.

Read also | Where does India stand on the Omicron world chart? 10 points

However, almost all scientists and medical professionals recommend caution, given the highly mutated form of the virus and the unusually high number of evolutions the variant has been capable of. In such a scenario, it is sometimes difficult for the average citizen – when faced with symptoms that also resemble those of a cold or flu – to know if they are infected with Omicron.

In all three cases of cold, flu, or coronavirus (Covid-19) infection caused by Omicron, symptoms include a sore throat, runny nose, body aches, and fever. The main suspect, in almost all of these cases, is the common cold. It might also be tempting to consider the flu, which tends to peak in the middle of winter, from early October to mid-February.

However, given that Omicron cases have skyrocketed around the world over the past few days, it is also very likely that the person has contracted the rapidly spreading variant.

According to experts, however, there is no quick and foolproof way to tell if you have Omicron. While there are a few workarounds to get an educated guess, the importance of testing is more than ever revealed here, as it is difficult to tell Omicron from the common cold, especially on the basis of symptoms alone.

Read also | Covid-19: Can home tests detect the Omicron variant? Here’s what the experts say

Professor Eskild Petersen, of Aarhus University Hospital in Denmark, said in a media publication: “A common cold and Omicron is, in my opinion, indistinguishable.

The point was also echoed by Dr Andrew Freedman, an infectious disease specialist at Cardiff University in the UK. “A lot of people, especially those who have been vaccinated, catch what would otherwise be considered a cold.”

Here are some general symptoms of Covid-19, the flu and the common cold, classified by their frequency:

Dry cough: Covid-19 (common), influenza (common), common cold (occasionally)

Fever: Covid-19 (common), influenza (common), common cold (rare)

Crowded nose: Covid-19 (rare), flu (sometimes), common cold (common)

Sore throat: Covid-19 (sometimes), flu (sometimes), common cold (common)

Shortness of breath: Covid-19 (sometimes), influenza (not observed), common cold (not observed)

Headache: Covid-19 (sometimes), flu (common), common cold (not observed)

Aches: Covid-19 (sometimes), flu (common), common cold (common)

Sneezing: Covid-19 (not observed), influenza (not observed), common cold (common)

Exhaustion: Covid-19 (sometimes), flu (common), common cold (sometimes)

Diarrhea: Covid-19 (rare), flu (sometimes), common cold (not observed)

Even so, the best advice given by professionals, as always, is to get tested and self-isolate at home if symptoms develop. While the sensitivity of rapid tests in detecting Omicron might be a little lower at present, RT-PCR (reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction) tests are generally considered to be the most reliable and most accurate to detect potential Covid-19 infection. If Covid-19 is detected, the patient sample will be sent to an appropriate laboratory to detect the variant of the coronavirus.

Jill Weatherhead, infectious disease expert at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Recount the National geography magazine that “the best thing we can do is identify our risk tolerances and make sure we protect others”, especially during this highly contagious time.