How to Know if You're Still Contagious After Illness

With holiday gatherings popping up, you don’t want to be around friends and family when you could spread an illness. If you’ve been sick with a cold, flu, COVID-19 or other illnesses, here are some tips to know when it’s safe for you to mingle.

• Flu. According to HuffPost, once you get flu symptoms — chills, body aches, fever, cough, fatigue and headaches — you are contagious for up to seven days. Once the symptoms and the fever subside without the use of fever-reducing medicine wait at least 24 hours before coming into contact with others. However, you could be contagious for up to two weeks, say experts, from this viral illness, so always where a mask and physically distance during that time.

• COVID-19. The symptoms include cough, sore throat, muscle aches, diarrhea, fatigue, nausea, and vomiting, caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus.  Stay at home if you are symptomatic and when you are feeling better and haven’t had a fever for 24 hours without the use of fever-reducing drugs, you are less contagious and can leave your home. Mask wearing and physically distancing from others is wise if you still have symptoms or have a positive result on a home COVID-19 test. Some people find their symptoms return or get worse after a week. If this happens to you, stay home and away from others once again.

• Common cold. Unlike the intense onset of flu symptoms, colds come on gradually. Usually people experience a runny nose, coughing and sneezing, says Dr. Marlene Millen, a board-certified internal medicine doctor at UC San Diego Health. Once you have symptoms, you are contagious but when the symptoms disappear, you are safe to mingle.

• RSV. Respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, is a viral infection that usually makes people wheeze. Once you start showing symptoms such as coughing, sneezing or wheezing, you are contagious for up to eight days, says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Stay home when you are feeling sick and clean frequently touched surfaces thoroughly as the virus can survive on hard objects for many hours. People who are immunocompromised can be contagious for four or more weeks after they start exhibiting symptoms. Once again, wait at least 24 hours after your fever has subsided naturally and symptoms have eased before leaving home.

• Strep throat. This painful bacterial infection usually presents as a very sore throat, says Millen. You are contagious for about 24 hours after you begin taking antibiotics for the infection. Stay home during this time to avoid spreading the illness to others.

• Whooping cough. Whooping cough or pertussis is a serious lung infection caused by bacteria. It is also very contagious and causes coughing fits, characterized by a “whoop” sound after the cough. Whooping cough is most serious for babies with very small airways. It can even lead to death, says the New York State Department of Health. A person with whooping cough can pass it to others as soon as they get cold-like symptoms. They can also pass it up to 3 weeks after they start coughing. If the infected person takes an appropriate antibiotic, they will not spread the germ after 5 full days of treatment.