In fact the chances are you've come down with something far less menacing - a common cold. All too often the two very similar, yet very separate, illnesses are confused as the same. Specifically, cold victims tend to overstate their ailment by claiming they've been struck down by the flu. To an extent, they can be forgiven, says Professor Ron Eccles of Cardiff's Common Cold Centre. They are both generally referred to as 'flu-like illnesses'.
Undoubtedly people tend to tell the boss they've got flu when they only have a cold.
It sounds better if they want time off work. But not everything that causes red spots on the skin is chicken pox. Both tend to last for about five or six days in a normally healthy person, and are transmitted in similar ways - cough, sneezing and fingers made dirty from being poked in the nose and eyes. The effects of flu can also be far more serious. It can cause pneumonia and kill its victims.