How to tell if you have flu, COVID, RSV: symptoms, prevalence, signs - Insider

• There are tons of seasonal illnesses spreading around, not conscionable flu, COVID, and RSV.
• Many person overlapping symptoms, but determination are a fewer telling ways to tease antithetic ailments apart.
• If you person a fever, positive a headache oregon cough, doctors urge getting tested for flu and COVID. 

The US is ill. Federal wellness data shows the state is presently red-hot with tons of fevers, sore throats, and coughs popping up from seashore to coast.

Most of the sickness retired determination close present is flu. Wastewater surveillance besides suggests COVID is connected a post-Thanksgiving uptick, and RSV — which has been sending babies and toddlers to urgent attraction for months — is inactive circulating wide too.

But determination are galore different illnesses beyond the "tripledemic" of flu, COVID, and RSV which are contributing to this year's earlier-than-usual onslaught of seasonal yuckiness.

"There's a batch of viral junk retired there," infectious illness adept Dr. William Schaffner, from Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, told Insider.

Here are immoderate of the astir communal culprits successful enactment close now, according to infectious illness experts who are conducting viral investigating astatine large aesculapian centers crossed the US, arsenic good arsenic national sickness watchers astatine the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:

Other than taking a conjecture based connected prevalence, it isn't truthful casual to tease retired precisely which unwellness has made you sick.

"Fever, musculus aches, cough, headache, those are going to beryllium common," Dr. Roy Gulick, main of infectious illness astatine New York-Presbyterian and Weill Cornell Medicine, told Insider. "You truly can't archer the quality betwixt flu and COVID."

However, determination are immoderate telling symptoms that whitethorn assistance separate 1 unwellness from another. Paying attraction to however rapidly your unwellness evolves, and which symptoms are astir salient tin assistance you instrumentality an educated stab astatine which seasonal unwellness you mightiness have:

If you deliberation you whitethorn person the flu oregon COVID, it tin beryllium worthy getting tested. If you drawback the corruption aboriginal enough, antiviral treatments are available, which tin shorten the people of your infection, and marque it milder too.

"If radical person fever oregon cough, headache, they truly should get tested some for flu and COVID," Gulick said. This is particularly important for older adults, who relationship for the immense bulk of some COVID and flu deaths. "You've got to beryllium seen and treated and diagnosed early."

However, if your unwellness is not flu oregon COVID, often there's not excessively overmuch to beryllium done, different than hold for your immune strategy to decorativeness its fight, staying arsenic comfy and steadfast arsenic imaginable arsenic you tin successful the meantime.

"Knowing that it's RSV is truly not going to alteration thing that we do," pediatrician Manuela Murray, aesculapian manager of the Pediatric Urgent Care Centers astatine the University of Texas Medical Branch, told Insider. "We truly don't person immoderate medications that help."

The aforesaid is existent of galore different viruses. For astir of them, doctor's orders are to rest, hydrate, and instrumentality symptom relievers and fever reducers to assistance easiness your pain.