Cold vs Swine Flu Symptoms
You know that feeling; achy body, sneezing and chills. Aaah, the age old question, is it the cold or is it the flu now has a third question; could it be the swine flu? In today’s society with global travel and news reports scaring everyone half to death it is more important than ever to know the distinctions between them.
Let’s start out with some background. In general, the flu and the common cold are both respiratory illnesses caused by a virus; however they are different viruses. Colds are caused by many different viruses that are why you can get more than one cold a year. With the flu and H1N1 they are caused by a specific virus strain. Before getting into more specifics with the flu is and what a cold is, here are the basic differences in symptoms:
Cold VS H1N1 Flu Symptoms
FILL
The flu strains we are dealing with today are directly related to flu strains of the past. To explain better, consider this condensed history of the flu.
412 BC the first major epidemic of disease was recorded by Hippocrates, more than likely it was the flu.
1580 the first recorded influenza pandemic begins in Europe and spreads to Asia and Africa.
1700s saw influenza pandemics six times.
1831 and 1833-34 influenza pandemic hit.
1878 a disease causing high mortality rate in poultry it becomes known as the fowl plague which is now called HPAI, the avian flu.
1889 to 1890 the “Russian flu” spreads through Europe and reaches North American 1889 that led to a major pandemic in 1900.
1918 to 1919 the “Spanish flu” circled the globe; caused by the H1N1 virus was the worst influenza pandemic to date with around 50,000,000 people dead worldwide, give or take a few million, and is the basis for all subsequent influenza A sicknesses we see today.
1933 Sir Christopher Andrewes, Wilson Smith and Sir Patrick Laidlaw isolate the first human influenza virus.
1976 swine flu breaks out among a handful of soldiers stationed at Fort Dix, New Jersey. One soldier complained of being tired and not feeling well one day; he was dead the next. President Ford called for a crash vaccination program; there were 25 deaths from a rare paralytic complication of the vaccine (Guillain-Barre syndrome). No one else died of the swine flu that year.
2009 April, swine flu begins in Mexico and spreads. As of October 30 all but 2 states report widespread activity.
The point is, all of these different times and pandemic/epidemics viruses have genes from the previous generations, they are all related. The current H1N1 found its origins in the pig. The greatest burden for the disease is in people 7-25 years of age. The older generation, 65 and plus, are not affected by H1N1 but are affected by the regular seasonal flu. This is because they were exposed to an earlier strain of the H1N1 virus.
Pigs are susceptible to flu viruses from both humans and birds. Originally this virus looked like a lot of genes for virus’ in pigs, then it mutated and became a quadruple reassortant having two pig virus genes that circulate in pigs in Europe and Asia, one bird or avian gene and one human gene allowing it to pass between all three.
The history of the common cold is just as common. The ancient Egyptians had hieroglyphs for the cough and the common cold. In the 5th century BC, Hippocrates described the disease. Aztec and Mayan civilizations were very familiar with the cold. The Aztecs had remedies such as a mixture of chili pepper, honey and tobacco to treat the cold. The “common cold” phrase came into use in the 16th century because of the similarity to symptoms of exposure to cold weather. In the 18th century Benjamin Franklin hypothesized that the common cold was passed between people through the air and recommended exercise, bathing and moderation in consumption of food and drink. The first half of the 19th century it was still thought that wet feet and clothes contributed to getting a cold. It was not till the 2nd half of 19th century that viruses were being looked at as the culprit when, in 1914, Walter Kruse, a professor in Leipzig, Germany, showed that viruses caused the common cold. In 1946 the Common Cold Unit was set up by the Civilian Medical Research Council in Britain. They discovered the rhinoviruses there and did many experiments to discover the cause and treatments of the rhinovirus. In the 1970s, it was also shown that treatment with interferon during the incubation phase of rhinovirus infection protects somewhat against the disease, but at that time no practical treatment could be developed. The unit was closed in 1989, just two years after showing benefit of zinc gluconate lozenges in the prophylaxis, from the Greek for an advanced guard, and treatment of rhinovirus colds.
All in all the severity of our reactions to the viruses is the main difference between the cold and flu, Swine Flu or H1N1. The cold is milder than the flu and there are usually no serious risks for hospitalization or death. The flu has been a killer since the beginning, usually in those with weakened immune systems or others with high risk factors. Keep a close watch on kids with the flu as their health can quickly deteriorate.
