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Home / Can You Get a Flu Again After Youve Been Diagnose

Can You Get a Flu Again After Youve Been Diagnose

If y'all've been exposed, are sick, or are caring for someone with COVID-19

Woman taking care of sick relative

If you've been exposed to someone with COVID-19 or begin to feel symptoms of the disease, you may be asked to self-quarantine or cocky-isolate. What does that entail, and what tin can you practice to gear up yourself for an extended stay at home? How shortly after y'all're infected will you start to be contagious? And what can you practise to foreclose others in your household from getting ill?

Visit our Coronavirus Resource Heart for more than information on coronavirus and COVID-nineteen.

Bound to: Symptoms | Testing | Antibodies | Contagiousness | Long Term Effects

Symptoms of COVID-nineteen

What are the symptoms of COVID-19?

Some people infected with the virus have no symptoms. When the virus does cause symptoms, common ones include fever, body ache, dry cough, fatigue, chills, headache, sore throat, loss of appetite, and loss of smell. In some people, COVID-19 causes more severe symptoms like high fever, severe coughing, and shortness of breath, which often indicates pneumonia.

People with COVID-19 can also experience neurological symptoms, gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms, or both. These may occur with or without respiratory symptoms.

For case, COVID-19 affects encephalon function in some people. Specific neurological symptoms seen in people with COVID-xix include loss of scent, inability to sense of taste, muscle weakness, tingling or numbness in the hands and feet, dizziness, confusion, delirium, seizures, and stroke.

In addition, some people have gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms, such equally loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and abdominal pain or discomfort associated with COVID-19.

What should I exercise if I think I or my child may accept a COVID-19 infection?

Beginning, call your md or pediatrician for advice.

If y'all do not have a doctor and y'all are concerned that yous or your child may accept COVID-19, contact your local board of health. They can directly you to the all-time place for testing and treatment in your area. Over-the-counter tests may also be available at your local pharmacy or grocery store.

If you do test positive and either accept no symptoms or can recover at habitation, yous volition still need to

  • isolate at abode for 5 days
  • if y'all have no symptoms or your symptoms are improving after 5 days, y'all tin can discontinue isolation and go out your home
  • continue to wear a mask around others for five additional days.

If yous have a fever, continue to isolate at domicile until you no longer accept a fever.

If you have a high or very depression trunk temperature, shortness of jiff, confusion, or feeling y'all might pass out, you need to seek immediate medical evaluation. Phone call the urgent care center or emergency department ahead of time to allow the staff know that you are coming, so they tin be prepared for your arrival.

How do I know if I have COVID-nineteen, the flu, or just a cold?

At present that the Omicron variant of COVID-19 is the dominant strain, telling the difference is more challenging than ever. Even if you have been vaccinated and boosted, you can even so go symptoms, merely they are likely to be mild to moderate in severity. For those non vaccinated, the risk of severe symptoms that tin be life-threatening is however substantial.

At the electric current time, people with "flulike" symptoms should assume they take COVID. If possible, arrange to get tested or do a abode examination. If the exam is positive, you lot should isolate at home for v days. If yous had a negative test when symptoms started, it's yet all-time to isolate at home for 2 to three more days, to monitor your symptoms and prevent spreading infection. (That's because at that place is a chance of false negatives with antigen tests, which means you lot can still have COVID with a negative examination.) Consider testing once again before going out. Once yous are ready to exit home, continue to consistently vesture a mask for at least v more days.

COVID-xix Testing

I recently spent time with someone who tested positive for COVID-19. I'm fully vaccinated and boosted. Do I need to get tested?

According to the latest CDC guidelines, if you are vaccinated and boosted, or have gotten your initial vaccine series inside the last six months (for Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna) or the last two months (for Johnson & Johnson), you should wear a mask around others for ten days and take a COVID examination on day 5, if possible. If you develop symptoms, get tested sooner and isolate at abode.

If you are unvaccinated, had your last Pfizer or Moderna shot more than than six months ago and have not been boosted, or had your Johnson & Johnson show more two months agone and accept not been boosted, yous should stay home for five days and wearable a mask around others for an additional v days. If you tin can't quarantine, wear a mask around others for ten days. Get tested for COVID on day 5, if possible. If you develop symptoms at whatever time, get tested and isolate at home.

What is the deviation betwixt a PCR examination and an antigen test for COVID-19?

PCR tests and antigen tests are both diagnostic tests, which means that they can be used to determine whether you currently take an active coronavirus infection. However, at that place are of import differences between these two types of tests.

PCR tests detect the presence of the virus's genetic cloth using a technique called reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction, or RT-PCR. For this test, a sample may be collected through a nasal or throat swab, or a saliva sample may be used. The sample is typically sent to a laboratory where coronavirus RNA (if present) is extracted from the sample and converted into DNA. The DNA is then amplified, meaning that many copies of the viral DNA are fabricated, in order to produce a measurable upshot. The accuracy of any diagnostic test depends on many factors, including whether the sample was collected properly, when during the class of disease the testing was done, and whether the sample was maintained in appropriate atmospheric condition while it was shipped to the laboratory. Generally speaking, PCR tests are highly accurate.

Antigen tests notice specific proteins on the surface of the coronavirus. They are sometimes referred to as rapid diagnostic tests because it tin accept less than an hour to get the test results. Positive antigen test results are highly specific, meaning that if you exam positive y'all are very likely to be infected. However, at that place is a higher hazard of faux negatives with antigen tests, which means that a negative result cannot definitively dominion out an agile infection. If you have a negative result on an antigen test, your doctor may order a PCR test or a second rapid antigen exam to confirm the event.

It may exist helpful to call up of a COVID antigen test as you would retrieve of a rapid strep examination or a rapid influenza exam. A positive event for any of these tests is likely to be accurate, and allows diagnosis and treatment to begin speedily, while a negative event often results in farther testing to confirm or overturn the initial outcome.

How reliable are the tests for COVID-19?

2 types of diagnostic tests are currently available in the US. PCR tests discover viral RNA. Antigen tests, as well called rapid diagnostic tests, detect specific proteins on the surface of the coronavirus. Antigen exam results may come back in as little as fifteen to 45 minutes; you may wait several days for PCR test results.

The accuracy of any diagnostic examination depends on many factors, including whether the sample was nerveless properly. For PCR tests, which are typically analyzed in a laboratory, test results may be afflicted by the conditions in which the test was shipped to the laboratory.

Results may also be affected by the timing of the exam. For example, if you are tested on the mean solar day you were infected, your test result is almost guaranteed to come back negative, because in that location are non still enough viral particles in your nose or saliva to discover. The chance of getting a false negative test upshot decreases if you are tested a few days after you were infected, or a few days after you develop symptoms.

Generally speaking, if a test consequence comes back positive, it is most certain that the person is infected.

A negative examination result is less definite. There is a higher adventure of false negatives with antigen tests, and early on data suggests that antigen tests may be even more likely to miss the Omicron variant. If you have a negative effect on an antigen test, your dr. may order a PCR examination or recommend a 2nd rapid antigen test to confirm the result.

If yous feel COVID-like symptoms and get a negative PCR test issue, there is no reason to repeat the test unless your symptoms become worse. If your symptoms practice worsen, call your medico or local or state healthcare section for guidance on farther testing. Y'all should likewise cocky-isolate at abode. Wear a mask when interacting with members of your household. And exercise concrete distancing.

What is serologic (antibiotic) testing for COVID-nineteen? What can it be used for?

A serologic test is a blood test that looks for antibodies to SARS-CoV-ii created by your allowed system in response to infection or vaccination.

Your torso takes one to 3 weeks after you accept acquired the infection to develop antibodies to this virus. For this reason, serologic tests are not sensitive enough to accurately diagnose an agile COVID-19 infection, even in people with symptoms.

Antibodies and Spreading COVID-19

I've heard that the immune system produces different types of antibodies when a person is infected with the COVID-19 coronavirus. How do they differ? Why is this important?

When a person gets or is vaccinated against a viral or bacterial infection, a healthy immune system makes antibodies against i or more components of the virus or bacterium.

The COVID-19 coronavirus contains ribonucleic acid (RNA) surrounded by a protective layer, which has spike proteins on the outer surface that can latch on to certain human cells. Once inside the cells, the viral RNA starts to replicate and also turns on the production of proteins, both of which permit the virus to infect more cells and spread throughout the body, especially to the lungs.

While the allowed system could potentially answer to unlike parts of the virus, it'southward the spike proteins that get the most attention. Immune cells recognize the spike proteins every bit a foreign substance and begin producing antibodies in response.

At that place are ii main categories of antibodies:

Bounden antibodies. These antibodies can demark to either the spike poly peptide or a different protein known every bit the nucleocapsid poly peptide. Binding antibodies can be detected with blood tests starting about ane week after the initial infection. If antibodies are found, it'southward extremely likely that the person has been infected with the COVID-xix coronavirus. The antibody level declines over time later an infection, sometimes to an undetectable level.

Bounden antibodies help fight the infection, but they might non offer protection against getting reinfected in the future. Information technology depends on whether they are also neutralizing antibodies.

Neutralizing antibodies. The body makes neutralizing antibodies that attack the coronavirus's spike poly peptide, making it more than hard for the virus to attach to and enter human cells. Neutralizing antibodies provide more lasting protection than binding antibodies against reinfection.

Monoclonal antibodies are manmade versions of neutralizing antibodies. The FDA has authorized monoclonal antibody treatments for certain groups of COVID-xix patients.

Tin can a person who has been infected with coronavirus get infected once more?

The immune organization responds to COVID-19 infection past stimulating white blood cells chosen lymphocytes to form antibodies that fight the infection. These antibodies and lymphocytes retain a temporary protective effect against reinfection. But information technology is only temporary. In that location have been many confirmed cases of reinfection with COVID-19. In other words, a person got sick with COVID-xix, recovered, and then became infected again.

This has been especially true equally the coronavirus has mutated into COVID-19 variants. In that location was a rise in reinfections with the Delta variant, and an explosive increment in the reinfection rate due to the Omicron variant. Omicron has about 50 mutations, including more than xxx mutations on the fasten poly peptide, the region of the virus that our allowed systems recognize after previous infection. Because of this, Omicron is more capable than previous variants of evading our immune defenses and causing reinfection.

Nosotros take learned that vaccination plus a booster dose strengthens the natural immune response, even in those who accept been previously infected, and further reduces the risk of reinfection. Although breakthrough infections after vaccination are also more than common with Omicron than previous variants, vaccination continues to protect well against severe illness.

The bottom line? Get vaccinated and boosted whether or not you lot've already had COVID-19.

Contagiousness of COVID-nineteen

How soon after I'm infected with the new coronavirus will I start to be contagious?

The time from exposure to symptom onset (known as the incubation period) is thought to be ii to 14 days. Symptoms typically appeared inside v days for early variants, and within iv days for the Delta variant. The incubation period appears to be even shorter – about 3 days – for the Omicron variant.

Nosotros know that people tend to exist most infectious early in the course of their infection. With Omicron, most transmission occurs during the ane to ii days before onset of symptoms, and in the two to three days later.

Wearing masks, specially indoors, tin help reduce the run a risk that someone who is infected but non still experiencing symptoms may unknowingly infect others.

Tin people without symptoms spread the virus to others?

"Without symptoms" tin refer to ii groups of people: those who eventually exercise have symptoms (pre-symptomatic) and those who never go on to take symptoms (asymptomatic). During this pandemic, we accept seen that people without symptoms can spread the coronavirus infection to others.

A person with COVID-xix may be contagious 48 hours before starting to experience symptoms. In fact, people without symptoms may be more than likely to spread the illness, considering they are unlikely to exist isolating and may non prefer behaviors designed to foreclose spread.

Simply what about people who never go on to develop symptoms? A written report published inJAMA Network Open found that well-nigh one out of every four infections may be transmitted by individuals with asymptomatic infections. The proportion of asymptomatic transmission appears to be even college with the Omicron variant.

Getting vaccinated and boosted in one case yous are eligible is of import for protecting not only yourself only others as well; evidence suggests that you're less probable to infect others, or may exist contagious for a shorter period of time, once you've been vaccinated.

For how long afterwards I am infected will I go on to be contagious? At what signal in my illness will I be most contagious?

People are idea to be most contagious early on in the course of their illness. With Omicron, nearly transmission appears to occur during the i to two days earlier onset of symptoms, and in the ii to 3 days afterwards. People with no symptoms tin can also spread the coronavirus to others.

By the 10th 24-hour interval later on COVID symptoms begin, well-nigh people volition no longer be contagious, equally long as their symptoms take continued to improve and their fever has resolved. People who test positive for the virus just never develop symptoms over the post-obit 10 days after testing are also probably no longer contagious.

The CDC's isolation guidelines, updated in Dec 2021, reflect this cognition. According to the guidelines, everyone who tests positive for COVID-19 should

  • isolate at home for five days
  • if yous accept no symptoms or your symptoms are improving after five days, you can discontinue isolation and leave your abode
  • continue to wear a mask around others for five boosted days.

If you have a fever, continue to isolate at home until you no longer take a fever.

I'thousand vaccinated but got a breakthrough COVID infection. Can I nonetheless spread the infection to others?

Yes, you can. That'south why the CDC recommends that everyone who tests positive for COVID-19 should isolate from others for at least five days, regardless of their vaccination condition.

How can I protect myself while caring for someone that may take COVID-19?

You should take many of the aforementioned precautions as you would if y'all were caring for someone with the flu:

  • Stay in another room or be separated from the person as much every bit possible. Use a carve up bedroom and bathroom, if bachelor.
  • Make sure that shared spaces in the home accept good air menses. If possible, open a window.
  • Wash your easily often with soap and water for at least twenty seconds or use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer that contains threescore to 95% alcohol, covering all surfaces of your easily and rubbing them together until they feel dry. Use soap and water if your easily are visibly dingy.
  • Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth with unwashed hands.
  • You and the person should vesture a confront mask if you are in the same room.
  • Wear a disposable face mask and gloves when you lot bear on or have contact with the person'southward blood, stool, or trunk fluids, such equally saliva, sputum, nasal mucus, vomit, urine.
    • Throw out disposable face up masks and gloves subsequently using them. Practise not reuse.
    • First remove and throw away gloves. Then, immediately make clean your hands with soap and water or booze-based paw sanitizer. Adjacent, remove and throw abroad the face mask, and immediately make clean your hands again with soap and h2o or booze-based hand sanitizer.
  • Do not share household items such every bit dishes, drinking spectacles, cups, eating utensils, towels, bedding, or other items with the person who is sick. Later the person uses these items, wash them thoroughly.
  • Clean all "high-touch" surfaces, such as counters, tabletops, doorknobs, bath fixtures, toilets, phones, keyboards, tablets, and bedside tables, every day. Also, make clean any surfaces that may accept claret, stool, or torso fluids on them. Use a household cleaning spray or wipe.
    • Wash laundry thoroughly.
    • Immediately remove and wash clothes or bedding that have claret, stool, or body fluids on them.
  • Wear dispensable gloves while handling soiled items and continue soiled items away from your body. Make clean your easily immediately after removing your gloves.
  • Place all used disposable gloves, face masks, and other contaminated items in a lined container before disposing of them with other household waste material. Clean your easily (with soap and water or an alcohol-based mitt sanitizer) immediately later on handling these items.

Can people infect pets with the COVID-19 virus?

The virus that causes COVID-19 does appear to spread from people to pets, co-ordinate to the FDA, though this is uncommon. Research has found that cats and ferrets are more than probable to become infected than dogs.

If you go ill with COVID-nineteen, it'due south best to restrict contact with your pets, just like you would around other people. This ways you should forgo petting, snuggling, being kissed or licked, and sharing nutrient or bedding with your pet until you are feeling better. When possible, have another member of your household care for your pets while yous are sick. If you must intendance for your pet while you are sick, wash your hands before and after you interact with your pets and wearable a face mask.

At nowadays, it is considered unlikely that pets can spread the COVID-xix virus to humans. Yet, pets tin spread other infections that cause illness, includingEast. coli and Salmonella, so wash your hands thoroughly with lather and h2o later on interacting with your animate being companions.

Long Term Effects of COVID-19

I had COVID-19 a few months ago. Am I at increased risk for health bug in the hereafter?

Information technology does appear that people who recover from COVID-19 have an increased risk of developing other medical conditions, at least in the short term.

One written report, published inThe BMJ, collected laboratory test and hospital admissions data from a health program in the The states. The researchers compared information from more than than 190,000 adults, ages 18 to 65 years, who tested positive for the SARS-CoV-ii virus in 2020, to data from a command group that was collected in 2019, before the pandemic. The researchers followed the participants for six months after they tested positive for SARS-CoV-two and recorded whatsoever new wellness complications.

They establish that 14% of people who had had COVID-19 adult a new medical issue during the post-obit six months; this was most 5% higher than the pre-pandemic control grouping, a significant deviation. New medical problems affected a range of trunk systems and included respiratory failure, abnormal center rhythms, diabetes, neurological problems, and liver and kidney bug. Increased risk was seen in younger, previously healthy people, but was higher in older people and those with pre-existing medical problems.

Some other report, published inNature, compared the health records of more than 73,000 users of the Veteran'southward Wellness Administration (VHA) who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 simply were never hospitalized, to those of well-nigh five million other VHA users who never tested positive for COVID-19 and were never hospitalized. For six months following the start xxx days afterwards infection, people who had had COVID-19 were significantly more than probable to die or to experience a medical or mental health problem that they had never had before.

These studies provide however another reason to become vaccinated and boosted if you are eligible.

Who are long-haulers? And what is postal service-viral syndrome?

Long haulers are people who have non fully recovered from COVID-19 weeks or fifty-fifty months later on first experiencing symptoms. Some long haulers feel continuous symptoms for weeks or months, while others feel amend for weeks, then relapse with onetime or new symptoms. The constellation of symptoms long haulers experience, sometimes called post-COVID-19 syndrome or post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection (PASC), is not unique to this infection. Other infections, such as Lyme disease, can crusade similar long-lasting symptoms.

Emerging research may assist predict who volition become a long hauler. One report constitute that COVID-19 patients who experienced more than five symptoms during their starting time week of illness were significantly more than likely to become long haulers. Certain symptoms — fatigue, headache, difficulty breathing, a hoarse vocalism, and muscle or body aches — experienced alone or in combination during the showtime week of illness also increased the chances of condign a long hauler, as did increasing age and higher body mass index (BMI).

Though these factors may increase the likelihood of long-term symptoms, anyone tin become a long hauler. Many long haulers initially accept mild to moderate symptoms — or no symptoms at all — and exercise non require hospitalization. Previously salubrious immature adults, non but older adults with circumstantial medical weather, are also experiencing post-COVID-nineteen syndrome.

Symptoms of post-COVID-19 syndrome, like symptoms of COVID-nineteen itself, can vary widely. Some of the more mutual lasting symptoms include fatigue, worsening of symptoms after physical or mental activity, brain fog, shortness of jiff, chills, body ache, headache, articulation pain, chest pain, coughing, and lingering loss of sense of taste or odour. Many long haulers study cognitive dysfunction or retentiveness loss that affects their mean solar day-to-day ability to practise things like make decisions, have conversations, follow instructions, and bulldoze. The common thread is that long haulers haven't returned to their pre-COVID health, and ongoing symptoms are negatively affecting their quality of life. A systematic review published in JAMA Network Open reported that more than half of people infected with COVID-19 connected to feel at to the lowest degree one symptom six months after their diagnosis.

There's already some speculation, just no definite answers, most what is causing these ongoing symptoms. Some researchers doubtable that SARS-CoV-2 infection triggers long-lasting changes in the immune organization. Others propose that it triggers autonomic nervous organization dysregulation, which can impact heart charge per unit, claret pressure, and sweating, among other things.

Blog posts:

  • Could COVID-19 infection exist responsible for your depressed mood or feet?
  • What is COVID-19 encephalon fog — and how can yous clear it?
  • The tragedy of the post-COVID "long haulers"
  • The hidden long-term cognitive effects of COVID
  • Which test is best for COVID-nineteen?
  • Allergies? Common cold? Flu? Or COVID-19?

Podcast:

You think you've got COVID-19. Here's what yous need to do (recorded four/x/20)

We asked Dr. Mallika Marshall, medical reporter for CBS-affiliate WBZ TV in Boston and an instructor at Harvard Medical School, how we should react when we first to experience a dry out coughing or perhaps spike a fever. Who do you lot call? How practise you protect your family unit? When does it brand sense to movement toward an emergency department, and how should we set? Dr. Marshall is the host of Harvard Wellness Publishing's online form serial, and an urgent care physician at Mass General Hospital.

Visit our Coronavirus Resources Eye for more information on coronavirus and COVID-19.

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As a service to our readers, Harvard Wellness Publishing provides access to our library of archived content. Please note the date of concluding review or update on all articles. No content on this site, regardless of date, should always exist used as a substitute for direct medical advice from your doctor or other qualified clinician.

Can You Get a Flu Again After Youve Been Diagnose

Source: https://www.health.harvard.edu/diseases-and-conditions/if-youve-been-exposed-to-the-coronavirus