Is your cold caused by hay fever, a cold or Covid?

If you’ve had a cold attack in the last fortnight, you could assume it was just a cold.

Or you could easily have pointed the finger at hay fever if you’re particularly vulnerable as the UK has been repeatedly hit by a pollen bomb.

But as the pandemic has progressed, Covid itself has become much milder.

And as the virus sweeps the country once again, it means the symptoms that leave you taped to the sofa with a box of tissues may actually have been triggered by Covid.

Given that all three diseases can afflict people in similar ways, here’s the ultimate guide to telling what’s really behind your runny nose, cough, or pain.

The graphic shows: Common (green tick), occasional (orange circle) and never (red cross) symptoms of cold, hay fever and Covid

Covid infections have almost doubled in two weeks in England, rising to around 1.4million in the last week

covid

At the start of the pandemic, people were told to look out for three warning signs of Covid: loss of taste or smell, persistent cough and fever.

But as new variants evolved and vaccines and repeated waves mitigated the threat of the virus, the official list of symptoms continued to grow.

The NHS now recognizes 12 symptoms linked to Covid.

According to the ZOE Symptom Tracking Study, the most commonly reported signs of the virus are now a runny nose (66 percent), sore throat (65 percent), headache (64 percent), persistent cough (63 percent). and fatigue (62 percent).

But because of the range of symptoms and the high prevalence of the virus, Professor Tim Spector, an epidemiologist at King’s College London who is leading the study, is encouraging people to get tested anyway.

The virus is currently in its fifth wave in the UK, driven by Omicron substrains BA.4 and BA.5, thought to be more contagious but just as mild as their ancestor.

Covid’s most unique feature is the complete loss of smell or taste, known as anosmia, which is rarely reported in the common cold and hay fever.

Harvard University researchers published a study in Science Advances in July 2020 showing that the virus enters blood vessel cells and stem cells in the nose, which power the nerves that transmit a sense of smell to the brain.

However, Omicron is less likely to cause the loss of taste or smell because the variant replicates deeper in the lungs than the nose, experts believe.

Of the more recent symptoms listed for Covid, only diarrhea and nausea or vomiting are unique to the virus and are not caused by either hay fever or the common cold. It suggests that if you have these as well as a cough it may well be Covid.

NHS guidelines tell people to stay at home and avoid contact with other people if they have symptoms of Covid – and take a PCR test. People are no longer legally required to test themselves if they are symptomatic, nor are they required to isolate if they are positive.

hay fever

The sky-high pollen levels of the last few weeks have left millions of people with hay fever.

Experts suspect that being indoors for the last two years of the pandemic has meant many have not been exposed to pollen, which has made their responses to it stronger this year.

Unlike colds and Covid, hay fever is more of an allergic reaction to pollen than a disease caused by an infection.

This means that the symptoms are caused by the body’s immune system overreacting to a foreign object it perceives as a threat – in this case, pollen.

A runny or stuffy nose, sneezing and itchy, red or watery eyes are the most common signs of an allergy.

But watery eyes are the only unique selling point that isn’t also, at least occasionally, a feature of Covid or the common cold.

The body naturally tries to wash pollen out of the body, causing the tear ducts to start producing fluids to alleviate the presence of herbal powder.

Eyes also get sore when the body causes an inflammation known as allergic conjunctivitis — when a thin, clear membrane covers the whites of the eyes and the insides of the eyelids.

Histamine produced during the reaction also irritates nerve endings, causing itching, while blood vessels dilate and swell to fight off the irritant, causing redness.

Unlike the other two diseases, hay fever doesn’t cause higher temperatures, said Marc Donovan, chief pharmacist at Boots, so it’s safe to rule out the allergy if those are your symptoms.

Mr Donovan said: “Hay fever does not cause a high temperature and most people do not feel unwell.

“Symptoms include sneezing, a runny or stuffy nose, itchy, red, watery eyes, or an itchy throat.”

He said to use barrier balms like petroleum jelly around the nostrils to trap pollen and wear wrap-around sunglasses to keep pollen out of sight and symptoms at bay.

Antihistamine tablets and nasal sprays can also be used to help control symptoms.

a cold

The common cold, which is less common in summer, can affect people year-round and is particularly prevalent during festival season when people return from live events after mingling with thousands of people while their immune systems may not be full was busy.

Two years of lockdown has reduced people’s immunity to the cold, while the hundreds of thousands who traveled to Glastonbury last week will have been exposed to viruses in the cramped conditions.

Coughs, sore throats, runny or stuffy noses, and sneezing are the most common symptoms caused by hundreds of viruses that cause the common cold.

Pain, fever, headache, fatigue, and loss of appetite can also be telltale signs, while loss of taste or smell is also an occasional symptom.

The lack of swollen, puffy eyes could be a sign that you actually have a cold and not the seasonal allergy.

Meanwhile, diarrhoea, nausea or shortness of breath on top of the previous symptoms could be a sign that it is indeed Covid and not a simple cold that you have.

Symptoms are caused when one of 200 different viruses causes inflammation of the membranes lining the nose and throat.

They’re not actually caused by cold weather, but the body is more susceptible to infection when the immune system is weakened – which can be caused by a drop in temperature.

Mr Donovan said: “Colds can still strike in the warmer months and usually involve sneezing and coughing, along with a sore throat, headache and sometimes a loss of taste and smell.

“You might consider taking painkillers to relieve pain, or relieving a stuffy nose with a decongestant nasal spray or decongestant tablets.”