Summer season colds and flu are extra frequent than you suppose. Here is tips on how to inform when you have one — and tips on how to deal with it.

Simply as you’re on the brink of hit the seaside or embark on that long-awaited trip, it’s possible you’ll be blindsided by these telltale achy, sneezy signs. However it’s summer season — can you actually get sick?

Sadly, sure. Consultants say that whereas it’s true that respiratory viruses survive higher in low temperatures and low humidity, colds, influenza and COVID-19 don’t simply disappear when the times get longer and the climate warms up.

“There’s a complete group of viruses known as enteroviruses that very generally trigger summer season colds that many individuals mistake for allergic reactions,” Dr. Jim Conway, medical director of the College of Wisconsin Well being Immunization Applications, tells Yahoo Life.

What’s behind summer season colds and flu?

Consultants say there are a number of the explanation why summer season can really improve the unfold of respiratory viruses.

• Individuals are touring. The Transportation Safety Administration has anticipated that this yr shall be its busiest summer travel season ever. Meaning tens of millions of persons are packing into shut quarters on airplanes and different public transportation with little air flow and minimal masking.

• It’s chilly and flu season within the Southern Hemisphere. “Lots of people could also be touring to the Southern Hemisphere: Australia, New Zealand, South America, South Africa,” Dr. David Weber, an epidemiology professor on the College of North Carolina, tells Yahoo Life. “And take into account it is their winter, when flu and RSV are peaking. So that you’re definitely in danger for selecting up a type of viruses in the event you’re touring in that locale, and you may definitely carry it again and probably transmit it to individuals right here.”

• Warmth drives individuals indoors. Excessive warmth can drive individuals to congregate inside for the comforts of air-con. However these indoor circumstances — with poor air flow and chillier temperatures — replicate the identical atmosphere that permits respiratory viruses to unfold so simply within the winter.

• Immunity from vaccines has waned. Whereas the annual flu shot that’s obtainable every fall can provide some safety, Conway says that by the point April rolls round, the pressure of influenza that these photographs defend in opposition to has probably modified — “in order that immunity would not fairly maintain up as nicely, and also you begin to see these little outbreaks that occur even in individuals which have been vaccinated,” he says. In actual fact, the rapidly-changing nature of SARS-CoV-2 could possibly be one motive we preserve seeing summer peaks of COVID-19. “The most important issue driving COVID just isn’t the climate and the humidity and the temperature,” Weber says, “however the evolution of latest variants.”

Is it a chilly, the flu, COVID or allergic reactions?

A summer season chilly or flu feels fairly just like what you’d expertise throughout the fall or winter. Right here’s a refresher on tips on how to differentiate them from each other.

• Chilly: Dr. Aashish Didwania, professor of drugs at Northwestern College, tells Yahoo Life that chilly signs normally develop steadily. “Basic” chilly signs embody runny nostril, sneezing, sore throat and gentle cough. “Fever can occur, nevertheless it tends to be much less frequent. And muscle aches and fatigue can occur, however they’re usually gentle,” Didwania says.

• Flu: Influenza can even contain nasal signs and sore throat or cough; however not like a chilly, Didwania says flu signs will normally come on abruptly. “If I get up at some point and I’ve obtained a depraved headache, I really feel like a truck ran over me, I am spiking a fever, that is extra probably flu than a chilly,” he says.

• COVID: Some signs that set COVID aside embody lack of style or odor and nausea, vomiting or diarrhea. Jennifer Walsh, an assistant professor on the George Washington College Faculty of Nursing, tells Yahoo Life that each influenza and COVID are inclined to have an effect on the entire physique, with “important fevers, physique aches and complications.” However she additionally cautions {that a} gentle case of COVID or flu can seem just like a standard chilly. “It may be just a little difficult to parse out,” she says, so the most secure method to make sure is to take a COVID take a look at.

• Seasonal allergic reactions: “Itchy eyes are much more frequent with allergic reactions, and never with a chilly and never with flu,” Didwania says. When you could expertise some sneezing, runny nostril and congestion, you shouldn’t encounter a fever or muscle aches. And whilst you’re at it, be looking out for “air con flu”; mould and mud spores in soiled air-con items may cause respiratory issues, together with allergy and bronchial asthma signs.

What do you have to do in the event you get sick this summer season?

Consultants say that recuperating from a summer season respiratory virus is just like restoration from a chilly or flu throughout another time of yr. Along with staying residence and resting, acetaminophen or ibuprofen might help with complications or physique aches; nasal saline sprays might help with higher respiratory congestion; and antivirals reminiscent of Paxlovid and Tamiflu, if used instantly, could make an enormous distinction in the event you’re identified with COVID-19 or the flu.

Consultants additionally say you must nonetheless get your annual influenza shot this fall, even in the event you get the flu this summer season. “There are heaps and plenty of completely different flu strains which might be on the market, so not at all ought to individuals suppose that in the event that they get the flu now throughout the summer season that they are good to go” for autumn and winter, Conway says. Every year the flu shot is repurposed to protect in opposition to a number of of the strains anticipated to be most prevalent that flu season, so getting a shot each fall offers you the very best probability at staying protected.