7 Most Common Winter Diseases to Watch Out For

The common cold

As many of you already know, the common cold is a viral infection of the upper respiratory tract. Unfortunately, children are more likely to catch a cold than other people, but it doesn’t mean that teenagers or adults can’t get sick as well.

In general, people recover from a common cold in up to ten days and the symptoms can be mild or severe, depending on your lifestyle. According to Dr. Darria Long Gillespie, the common cold is more frequent during the winter because the rhinovirus tends to thrive in cold weather. Rhinovirus is the main cause of common colds.

So, the symptoms of common colds include runny nose, sore throat, cough, congestion, body aches, headache, sneezing, fever and so on, and they usually occur within up to three days after the patient has contracted the virus (this process is also known as the incubation period of the virus).

However, if you have a common cold you should talk to your doctor about the right treatment, especially if you have a fever higher than 38 degrees Celsius.

Just like any other virus, including coronavirus, the virus that causes common colds can be spread by direct contact with an infected person, touching various objects that have already been touched by a sick person, or cold weather. Unfortunately, people with a weakened immune system, those who smoke, children and seniors are more likely to develop complications. 

Sore throat

Sore throat is a condition that usually occurs in the winter and affects your throat, causing irritation and pain especially when you swallow. In general, having a sore throat may be a symptom of the common cold (or other similar viruses), or in some cases, the root cause may be that you drank or ate something cold that affected your throat. Thus, according to medical experts, sore throat (pharyngitis) is actually a viral infection and should be treated accordingly by your doctor. Depending on the severity of the disease, treatment may be more complex with specific antibiotics to treat the infection. 

As we said before, the most common symptom of sore throat is pain while swallowing, but you may also notice a scratchy sensation in your throat, swollen glands in your neck, a hoarse voice, redness in the area of ​​the tonsils and tiny dots of pus. 

In addition, if you notice some small dots of pus on your tonsils, it may be a sign that you have an infection, and in this case, your treatment will include antibiotics, so the symptoms are fever, coughing, runny nose, headache, vomiting, and pain while swallowing. If your symptoms worsen, you should definitely schedule an appointment with your doctor as soon as possible. 

Studies have shown that most of the time, viral infections cause a sore throat, such as the common cold, flu, mono, measles, chickenpox, coronavirus disease (SARS-COV-2), and so on.