{"id":4914,"date":"2023-10-11T07:25:13","date_gmt":"2023-10-11T12:25:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/?p=4914"},"modified":"2023-10-11T07:25:17","modified_gmt":"2023-10-11T12:25:17","slug":"am-i-still-contagious","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/2023\/10\/11\/am-i-still-contagious\/","title":{"rendered":"Am I Still Contagious?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

NYT<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Argh, you\u2019re feeling sick again. You don\u2019t want to take off work or go to the doctor if you don\u2019t have to, but you also don\u2019t want to be that person who infects the whole office (substitute \u201ckid\u201d and \u201cclassroom,\u201d if applicable). You might have toughed it out before the pandemic, but the etiquette is different now. So how can you be sure about what you have, or if \u2014 and for how long \u2014 you need to stay home?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s what infectious disease experts want you to know about some of the most common adult and pediatric viruses (and one bacterial infection): their symptoms, how they spread, how to treat them and when you (or your child) can reenter society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014 Cold<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mild symptoms, including runny nose and congestion. Most contagious on Days 2 and 3.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCold\u201d is a catchall term for a mild respiratory infection. It\u2019s most commonly caused by a rhinovirus, but adenoviruses, coronaviruses, parainfluenza viruses and metapneumovirus can also induce cold-like symptoms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe recognize it as being sort of the fallback diagnosis,\u201d said Dr. Stuart Ray, a professor in the division of infectious diseases at Johns Hopkins Medicine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In some people, a COVID-19, flu or RSV infection might result in mild symptoms and be mistaken for a cold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Symptoms<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cold symptoms are familiar to most people: sore throat, runny nose, congestion and cough, sometimes combined with headache or fatigue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fever, muscle aches and lower respiratory symptoms \u2014 such as shortness of breath, wheezing or chest pain \u2014 are signs that you might have a more serious infection, like the flu or RSV.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNeck and above is usually common cold, and down below is often something else,\u201d Ray said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Symptoms typically last about five to seven days, peaking in severity around Days 2 and 3 and tapering off after that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How it\u2019s spread<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rhinoviruses are spread primarily through droplets, meaning you breathe in what someone else coughs, sneezes or breathes out. They can also survive on surfaces for up to 24 hours, and you can become infected by touching your face after picking up virus particles from something like a door handle or TV remote control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It typically takes a day or two after you\u2019ve been exposed to a rhinovirus until you develop symptoms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How it\u2019s treated<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are no antiviral treatments for the common cold, but some over-the-counter medications and home remedies may help relieve symptoms. (Be sure to check medication labels: One common decongestant ingredient, phenylephrine, was recently deemed ineffective by an advisory committee to the Food and Drug Administration.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How long you\u2019re contagious<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You are most infectious when you feel the worst, typically during the second and third days of symptoms. As you begin to feel better, the amount of virus in your body drops quickly, and it\u2019s generally safe to assume that you\u2019re no longer very contagious after Day 3 or 4, said Dr. Patricia Whitley-Williams, a professor of pediatrics at the Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don\u2019t worry if you still have a cough at that point; Ray said that this is because the airways can remain inflamed from the body\u2019s immune response, not because the virus is still present. However, you should continue to practice good hygiene, like coughing into your elbow and frequently washing your hands. If you have a lot of mucus or other symptoms, you should behave as if you\u2019re still contagious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s debate over whether you need to stay home when you have a cold. Though colds typically aren\u2019t risky, they are unpleasant and inconvenient, which can be reason enough to avoid spreading them to others. More important, if your cold is actually COVID or RSV, it could be dangerous for someone else.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NYT Argh, you\u2019re feeling sick again. You don\u2019t want to take off work or go to the doctor if you don\u2019t have to, but you also don\u2019t want to be that person who infects the whole office (substitute \u201ckid\u201d and \u201cclassroom,\u201d if applicable). You might have toughed it out before the pandemic, but the etiquette […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":4915,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Screenshot-2023-10-11-at-08.23.35.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4914"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4914\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4916,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4914\/revisions\/4916"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}