10 deadly diseases often mistaken for colds

When the weather changes, many people find it difficult to avoid symptoms such as headaches, fever, coughs, sore throats, fatigue, etc. These symptoms look very similar to colds at first glance, so they are often overlooked. However, they can be signs of serious illnesses that can be life-threatening if prolonged.

Here are 10 serious illnesses that are misdiagnosed as “colds”:

1. Leukemia

Early stage leukemia will have symptoms such as fever, sore throat, body weakness,... very similar to cold. These symptoms often repeat, until the patient goes to the hospital to check blood, check bone marrow then discover leukemia.

2. Early pregnancy

In the early stages of pregnancy, you will experience symptoms similar to a cold, such as high body temperature, headache, fatigue, chills, yellow skin, etc. Many people who have no experience with pregnancy will mistake it for a cold and use cold medicine - which can easily harm the fetus in the womb.

Experts advise that if women have sex without using contraception and experience similar symptoms, they should have a thorough health check before using drugs indiscriminately.

Brain tumor

Clinically, many patients with symptoms such as dizziness, headache, nausea, etc. think they have a cold and take medicine but the condition does not improve. When the symptoms persist, the patient goes to the hospital for examination and discovers that he or she has a brain tumor, including many young people in their 20s.

Because the clinical symptoms of brain tumors progress slowly, the disease progression has no obvious signs, the vast majority of patients are not diagnosed early, causing the tumor to continue to grow. When the disease is severe, the tumor will compress the peripheral nerve structure, causing damage to nerve function and symptoms of increased intracranial pressure such as dizziness, headache, nausea.

Pneumonia

Patients with pneumonia may experience symptoms such as fever, cough, and phlegm. Many people assume that these symptoms are caused by the common cold, wasting the best time to treat this disease. The only way to find out if you really have pneumonia is to have a chest X-ray and blood tests.

Acute nephritis

Before the onset of nephritis, patients often have upper respiratory tract infections and tonsillitis, which are manifested by sore throat, runny nose, stuffy nose, etc. Statistics also show that the vast majority of patients with acute nephritis, especially children, when the disease begins in the early stages, are basically difficult to distinguish from the common cold.

However, after a few days or after 1 week, the patient will feel loss of appetite, fatigue, nausea, swelling of the face and body, cloudy urine, etc. At this time, they will discover that the disease they have is not simple.

Stroke

Early stroke patients also have symptoms of dizziness, headache, nausea, fatigue, etc., but no one detects it. Only when the symptoms become serious, even leading to loss of consciousness, do patients go to the doctor.

To prevent stroke, medical experts also recommend that people with a history of high blood pressure or diabetes should promptly go to the hospital for a brain CT scan if they experience the above symptoms.

Acute epiglottitis

High-grade laryngitis also has external symptoms such as sore throat, fever, difficulty breathing, ... just like the common cold. However, epiglottitis progresses very quickly, can be life-threatening when the epiglottis, a small cartilage covering the windpipe, blocks the flow of air into the lungs.

Tuberculosis

Pulmonary tuberculosis also has symptoms such as cough, mild fever, fatigue, etc. in the early stages. If you experience these symptoms for a long time and the medication is not effective, you should go to the hospital soon for a thorough examination and X-ray.

Allergic rhinitis

When suffering from allergic rhinitis, patients also experience symptoms similar to colds such as stuffy nose, runny nose, sneezing, etc., but taking medicine does not improve the condition.

Allergic rhinitis is caused by allergens such as pollen and fungal spores,... normally the disease does not cause fever or body aches, only symptoms of upper respiratory tract infection such as: runny nose, itchy nose, accompanied by symptoms of itchy eyes, watery eyes, chest tightness and suffocation.

Patients with allergic rhinitis have more severe symptoms than a cold, specifically an itchy and runny nose that lasts for a long time, sometimes lasting one or two months.

Viral myocarditis

When suffering from this disease, there will be symptoms of a cold-like respiratory infection 1-3 weeks before the onset of viral myocarditis. Common symptoms are weakness, palpitations, shortness of breath, dizziness, chest tightness, etc. Many people are subjective, which leads to missing the best time to treat the disease, a few patients even die from severe arrhythmia, heart failure, and cardiogenic shock.

Ha Vu