How to tell if a cold is viral

Staying up late, sleeping late, bad eating habits and living habits, if not adjusted, can easily lead to a decline in the body's own immunity. After the body's own immunity declines, if you don't pay attention to keeping warm, it will cause a cold. Colds are usually divided into viral colds and bacterial colds. In fact, no matter which type of cold it is, active treatment is very important. So how do we judge whether the cold is viral?

How to tell if a cold is viral?

1. Judging by cold symptoms

About 90% of common colds are viral, while the proportion of bacterial colds is very low, about 10%. The characteristic of viral colds is that they occur in groups, and people are often infected when their family members or colleagues have a cold. Bacterial colds are often sporadic, and few or no people around them have a cold.

Among children's colds, relatively speaking, the proportion of bacterial colds in infants and young children is higher than that in older children, while the probability of viral colds in older children is higher than that in infants and young children.

Bacterial colds are often accompanied by fever, chills, and yellow-green nasal discharge, while viral colds have more diverse symptoms, starting with clear nasal discharge and possibly green nasal discharge in the later stages.

Relatively speaking, children with viral colds usually do not appear to be visibly depressed, while children with bacterial colds may still be lethargic even after their fever subsides. In viral colds, the tonsils often have follicles and are red, whereas in bacterial infections, the tonsils are darker in color and may have pus spots. Viral colds are often accompanied by rashes, while bacterial colds may cause cold hands and feet.

2. Judge based on blood count (blood routine test)

In the early stages of a viral cold, blood count is often not high, or the white blood cell (WBC) count is slightly elevated, while the neutrophil (N) count is generally not high.

Bacterial infection often causes an increase in both white blood cell and neutrophil counts, but there are also cases where the white blood cell count is high but the neutrophil count is low, or vice versa.

Sometimes there are differences between the blood test results from machine testing and those from manual testing by the doctor. Generally, manual testing is more accurate.

3. Under what circumstances can antibiotics be used when you have a cold?

The above two judgments are not easy to grasp in real life, because the specific manifestations of a cold may not match the symptoms in the book, and blood test results may sometimes have errors. So when can antibiotics be used?

Antibiotics are usually not used for common colds. They should only be used when symptoms such as fever, cough, thick sputum, elevated white blood cell count or tonsil suppuration persist after treatment.

In addition, some viral colds may be accompanied by bacterial infections in the later stages. If the symptoms have not improved after 7 days of the cold, bacterial infection may also be considered, and antibacterial drugs should be used for treatment at this time.