• Question: What's the difference between a flu, cold and a virus?

    Asked by edrienepadua to Christina, Colin, Jess, Samaneh, Steve on 23 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Christina Pagel

      Christina Pagel answered on 23 Jun 2013:

      Hi!

      A virus is a type of very small organism that can only reproduce inside the living cells of another organism (like an animal or a human) – it’s not clear whether they are a living thing themselves!

      Cold and flu are two illnesses that are both caused by viruses, but different viruses. What they have in common is that both viruses can mutate (ie change) very rapidly so once your body has developed a defence against your most recent cold or flu the next time you catch cold or flu the virus will be different and your body has to work out a new defence!

      Colds are generally much milder than flu and a healthy person will recover from both…

      Every 40 to 50 years a new flu virus emerges (normally from a virus that gives flu to animals (like swine or bird flu) that has changed to infect humans) – because these flu viruses are so different to anything humans have seen for decades, they can be very deadly and very infectious… the flu pandemic of 1918 infected 500 million people and killed up to 100 million!

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