Good thinking Clenbut I agree that there is a huge difference between a cold and the flu. In fact last night I was watching a programme about the flu. What it said was that the flu virus is most happy with our body temperature. The reason that we develop a fever is to try to raise the temperature to one that the virus will not be happy with which will then give our body's immune system a chance to combat the germs. Pretty neat eh?

Amanda you are right there, fever is not a disease, we have some defensive mechanism in our body and fever is a result of such mechanism, when ever our body has gone an virus attack or something like that then our immune system becomes active and then body temperature is raised, because viruses are immune to reside in our normal body temperature. Fever is an defensive mechanism.

I agree that it is too easy for people to claim they have 'flu' when really they just have a cold (or at this time of year hay fever!) Flu is really a very bad infection and can cause death in severe cases in the very you the very old or people already weakened by another illnesses. There are of course the different strains of flu as well like Avian or Swine which really are very serious infections and have claimed many lives. It is really important if you do have flu to get the diagnosis and if you don't to stop being a baby about your cold!!

They both are very different type's of flue
they both have different symptoms
they both are spread from contact
they both more prevalent in the winter season
this are the difference in this two virus

Well we are back in the flu and cold season again and I think it would be worth rewinding people in vulnerable groups to have a flu jab which can help a lot with keeping them clear of the devastating effect that these flu viruses can have on people who already suffer from underlying health problems. I always have one as I am diabetic.