Each year respiratory viruses are responsible for illnesses, hospitalizations and deaths. Read on to learn how to reduce your chance of catching or spreading a respiratory virus – such as COVID-19, flu and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). You can take action to protect yourself and others from health risks caused by respiratory viruses.
About these contagious respiratory viruses:
There are multiple ways you can keep healthy and lower your risk of catching or spreading a respiratory virus.
Get vaccinated. Vaccines are the safest way to build immunity from a virus. Vaccines help the body learn how to defend itself from disease without the dangers of an infection. The most important thing you can do to protect yourself from COVID-19, flu, and RSV is to get recommended vaccines and stay up to date. Vaccines often tame these viruses to prevent their worst outcomes, like hospitalization and death.
Practice personal hygiene. You can protect others when you choose to cover your coughs and sneezes, wash or sanitize your hands often, and clean surfaces you touch a lot.
Take steps for cleaner air. Bring in fresh, outside air by opening a window, purifying indoor air, or having outdoor social activities.
Stay home when sick, and away from others. When you have a respiratory virus infection, you can spread it to others. These symptoms can include fever, chills, fatigue, cough, runny nose, and headache, among others.
Contact your healthcare provider about worsening symptoms, testing, or treatment, and especially if you or someone you care for is at high risk for complications from a respiratory virus.
Specific to COVID-19
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I never had symptoms but tested positive for a respiratory virus, what do I do?
You may be contagious. For the next 5 days: take added precautions, such as taking additional steps for cleaner air, hygiene, masks, physical distancing, and/or testing when you will be around other people indoors. This is especially important to protect people with factors that increase their risk of severe illness from respiratory viruses.
How long am I contagious?
Once your symptoms are getting better overall and you are fever-free for 24 hours (and are not using fever-reducing medication), you are typically less contagious, but it still takes more time for your body to fully get rid of the virus. During this time, you may still be able to spread the virus to others. Taking precautions for the next 5 days can help reduce this risk. After these 5 days, you are typically much less likely to be contagious. However, some people, especially people with weakened immune systems, can continue to spread the virus for a longer time. For COVID-19, taking an antigen test can help you know how likely you are to spread the virus. A positive test tends to mean it is more likely that you can spread the virus to others.
How long someone can spread the virus depends on different factors, including how sick they are (severity) and how long their illness lasts (duration). This is not the same for everyone. If you’re feeling sick, you should stay home and away from others.
Example 1: Person with fever and symptoms.
Example 2: Person with fever but no other symptoms.
Example 3: Person with fever and other symptoms, fever ends but other symptoms take longer to improve.
Example 4: Person gets better and then gets a fever.
Talk to a public health professional about respiratory viruses, communicable diseases, or vaccines. Call Lorain County Public Health at 440-322-6367.
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