Can you catch a cold and the flu at the same time? Yes, and this is called "superinfection"

With each season of the flu, you're stocking up on your favorite home remedies – chicken soup, echinacea, hot honey and over-the-counter medications – and you're safe from anyone who sneezes on the subway. However, it is called cold and flu season for a reason – and it's technically possible to have both at the same time. While that is very rare, you can have the flu and cold at the same time. It's not nice or common, but it happens.

To understand how to simultaneously fight colds, flu, or many diseases, you first need to understand what colds and flu really are. The types of viruses that make up the cold are numerous: there are up to 200 subvarieties, depending on the guardian. The vast majority of sniffles in the world, however, is caused by a virus: the rhinovirus, which one study in 2007 estimated was the virus behind more than half of the world's colds. The family of rhinoviruses was first discovered in the 1950s, and no, we are not even closer to a vaccine.

Influenza, on the other hand, is also a virus, or technically three: influenza A, B, or C. The influenza vaccine that you should receive each year includes type A and various B varieties, and each year the influenza vaccine is specifically measure for the strain of virus that, according to the researchers, will be the most widespread this year.

When one of these viruses enters the body, the immune system intervenes in two stages. "Our immune response begins when our cells detect the presence of the virus and the resulting immune response can then be divided into two different stages," said Professor Jan Rehwinkel at the Nuffield Department of Medicine at the University. d & # 39; Oxford. "The first step is called the innate immune response and it starts very quickly after the infection and often helps contain the spread and spread of the virus." The second step, he notes, begins later and calls the adaptive immune response, which is "very specific for targeting the virus that is infecting us." If all goes well, the adaptive immune response eliminates the virus of our system ".

If you catch colds and flu at the same time, the immune system reacts in a special way. Dr. Kevin Bonham, an immunologist, explained in 2013 that if you get both, it is called "superinfection". If the two viruses that you contract are very similar, like colds and flu, he says, the first step in your immune system's response should be the one that goes into high gear. The body will go into what is called an "antiviral state," essentially a red alert, and will fight the two viruses identically. The second stage will focus on both viruses.

However, it is the antiviral state that makes it reasonably unlikely to contract two viruses at one time. Experts at Scientific focus Note that when you fight a rhinovirus, your body's immune system is activated and "makes the conditions inhospitable" to any other virus that is trying to develop. So, catching a cold over the flu can happen, but it is considered rather rare.

On the other hand, different categories of infection are not covered by this antiviral condition. This is why bacterial infections tend to affect people already weakened by viruses; if you've ever had an ear infection while you have a cold, you'll know how it goes. The body's immune system is so busy with the effects of the virus that it leaves itself a little more vulnerable to bacterial infections.

A way to protect yourself from the flu and cold at the same time? Get vaccinated against the flu, if you can. This will not only prevent you from getting the flu, but will also prevent you from spreading flu germs to those around you, who may be immunocompromised or unable to get vaccinated. In addition, it is wise to maintain the strength of your immune system to prevent multiple viral infections. Make sure you sleep well and do not assume that sniffing already protects you from the cold of someone else.