Misdiagnosis of Common cold

Misdiagnosis of Common cold

Distinguishing between cold and flu is not always easy but desirable because of newer antiviral flu medications. Generally, a cold is milder and a flu more severe, but there are exceptions. Flu will typically cause high fever, whereas a cold rarely does, and is usually mild if so. Flu also typically causes headache, body aches, fatigue, weakness, exhaustion, chest discomfort, and other symptoms that are uncommon or mild in a cold. Symptoms such as sore throat, runny nose, stuffy nose, and sneezing are more prominent in cold than flu, but can occur with either.

There are also other conditions that start like a cold such as whooping cough. Various allergies such as hay fever can also cause sneezing, runny nose, and stuffiness similar to a cold. Cold and flu are not the only respiratory viruses with other possibilities such as respiratory syncytial virus.

Alternative diagnoses list for Common cold:

For a diagnosis of Common cold, the following list of conditions have been mentioned in sources as possible alternative diagnoses to consider during the diagnostic process for Common cold:

• Flu
• Parainfluenza
• Respiratory syncytial virus
• Allergies
• Allergic reaction
• Hay fever
• Allergic rhinitis
• Whooping cough
• Sinusitis
• Nasal polyps
• Nasal foreign body
• Nasal tumor
• Brain injury - causing nasal leakage of CSF
• Other causes of runny nose, stuffy nose or cold-like symptoms
• Bronchitis
• Croup
• Viral infection
• Meningitis
• Meningococcal disease
• Pertussis

Diseases for which Common cold may be an alternative diagnosis

The other diseases for which Common cold is listed as a possible alternative diagnosis in their lists include:

• Acute Bronchitis
• Acute lower respiratory conditions
• Acute rhinitis
• Acute Sinusitis
• Adenoviruses
• Allergic rhinitis
• Allergies
• Animal allergies
• Campylobacter food poisoning
• Dust mite allergies
• Flu
• Food allergies
• Food poisoning
• Hay fever
• Hemophilus influenzae B
• Histoplasmosis
• Mastitis
• Mold allergies
• Pulmonary Anthrax
• Salmonella food poisoning
• Sinusitis
• Staphylococcus aureus food poisoning
• Wegener's granulomatosis
• Whooping Cough

Common cold: Medical Mistakes

Related medical mistakes may include:

• Asthma -- Health Mistakes
• Allergies -- Health Mistakes
• more mistakes...»

Discussion of diagnosis/misdiagnosis of Common cold:

If symptoms occur often or last much longer than two weeks, they may be the result of an allergy rather than a cold. (Source: excerpt from The Common Cold, NIAID Fact Sheet: NIAID)

Common Misdiagnoses and Common cold

Sinusitis is overdiagnosed: There is a tendency to give a diagnosis of sinusitis, when the condition is really a harmless complication of another infection, such as a common cold.

Whooping cough often undiagnosed: Although most children in the Western world have been immunized against whooping cough (also called "pertussis"), this protection wears off after about 15 years. Thus, any teen or adult with a persistent cough may actually have whooping cough. This is particularly dangerous for babies too young to be vaccinated, and any un-vaccinated children. Whooping cough can be fatal to an infant. The cough symptoms of whooping cough is usually productive initially, but then becomes a persistent dry cough, lasting up to 100 days. Elderly grandparents may also be a reservoir of undiagnosed whooping cough.

Medical news summaries about misdiagnosis of Common cold:

The following medical news items are relevant to misdiagnosis of Common cold:

• Baby dies of misdiagnosed whooping cough 1 week before vaccinations due
• Colds and allergies often difficult to distinguish
• Heart transplant has a good prognosis despite difficult journey
• Hepatitis is a contagious often misdiagnosed disease
• More news »

General Misdiagnosis Articles

Read these general articles with an overview of misdiagnosis issues.

• Misdiagnosis Overview
• How Common is Misdiagnosis?
• Over-Diagnosed Diseases
• Under-Diagnosed Diseases
• Types of Misdiagnosis
• Wrong Type Misdiagnosis
• Why Does Misdiagnosis Occur?
• Difficult Diseases to Diagnose
• More premium medical articles ...

About misdiagnosis:

When checking for a misdiagnosis of Common cold or confirming a diagnosis of Common cold, it is useful to consider what other medical conditions might be possible misdiagnoses or other alternative conditions relevant to diagnosis. These alternate diagnoses of Common cold may already have been considered by your doctor or may need to be considered as possible alternative diagnoses or candidates for misdiagnosis of Common cold. For a general overview of misdiagnosis issues for all diseases, see Overview of Misdiagnosis.