With both of these, you generally are much sicker than with the common cold. You may be running fevers, but you definitely feel like you should be in bed, and generally, aren’t going to be able to ignore your body for long. They are typically accompanied with severe body aches and headache. If you think you have one of the above, it’s normally best to contact your doctor.
Influenza
In most cases, influenza is fast and severe (although if you’re vaccinated, it can really change the way it presents if you still catch it). You think you may be getting sick, and by the end of the day, you think you’re maybe dying…lol. There are typically body aches, runny nose or post nasal drip, sinus congestion, cough, and chest congestion. There’s also frequently gastrointestinal symptoms like nausea, vomiting or diarrhea. Fever is typical, but the absence of fever doesn’t mean you don’t have the flu.
Normally, you get sick within 2-3 days of exposure to flu.
For the best way to prevent the flu, and for loads more information, see this blog post.
Treatment: For certain populations, not all, antiviral medications are recommended. These medications are recommended within a certain timeframe (usually within 48-72 hours of symptom onset) so contact your doctor as soon as possible if you’re suspecting flu.
In my research on my favorite advice for common cold therapies, I found out that elderberry may just have activity against influenza. If you have a healthy liver and kidneys, it may be worth adding to your treatment regimen if you’re recovering from flu.
Strep
Strep throat can accompany other infections, but generally, pure strep throat is not associated with the other symptoms of an upper respiratory illness. Fever, sore throat, headache are the mainstays of this illness. Having cervical lymphadenopathy (swollen glands in the neck) makes it more likely, but this can happen with the other illnesses as well.
Generally, you feel as bad with strep as you do with the flu…one of the main times that i figured out I had the flu was when I said to myself “I haven’t felt this bad since I had strep.” So yeah, you feel horribly.
However, it’s not common in adults. Typically you will have been exposed to younger children in order to be at risk. You will need to be swabbed, but also, make sure that whoever is swabbing looks at your throat. I will normally treat if the throat looks like classic strep, (it does have a very classic appearance) or if there is known exposure and the symptoms are super classic, since the rapid test is not 100% accurate.
Treatment is generally with amoxicillin of some sort. If you’re allergic, a cephalosporin, clindamycin or azithromycin will do.