What Is a Summer Cold — and Is It Worse?  

If you get a summer cold, you may experience the following:  

• Sneezing
• Muscle aches
• Runny nose or nasal congestion
• Cough
• Sore throat
• Fever

Enteroviruses can also trigger a skin rash or mouth blisters, and people may experience an upset stomach or other digestive issues, according to Cleveland Clinic.

If your symptoms are worse — more flu-like, even — it could be another bug. COVID-19 hasn’t settled into a seasonal pattern, Foster says, so you might want to test for that. If you’re positive, you could be eligible for prescription treatment — and the earlier you start the medication, the better it works.

Another virus that can cause respiratory symptoms that mimic a cold — or worse — is human metapneumovirus. While it tends to circulate more in the late winter and spring seasons, Foster says she’s seen cases year round. “That one is kind of a nasty one,” she says. “It tends to have more fever with it, has more cough with it. That one can really look like the flu.”

There is no specific antiviral treatment for a human metapneumovirus infection. However, researchers are working on developing a vaccine to help with prevention. 

Summer cold vs. allergies: How to tell the difference

This time of year it can be difficult to tell if your symptoms are due to a cold-causing virus or allergies. One way to distinguish, says Foster: Unless you have asthma, allergies rarely trigger a cough. “So if you're coughing, it's probably not allergies.”

Another giveaway: You have a fever. Allergies seldom cause a spike in temperature. Plus, allergy symptoms tend to be longer lasting, Block says. “So if you've had symptoms for a few weeks, it may indeed be allergies rather than a virus.”

Preventing and treating a summer cold

Hoping to stay cold-free this summer? Be sure to wash your hands often. “Everybody was really good about carrying hand sanitizer with them and washing their hands through COVID,” Foster says. “We should really try to upregulate that again.”

Also, stay away from sick people and clean and disinfect frequently touched surfaces. Cold-causing viruses can spread through close contact with an infected person and by touching objects or surfaces with the virus, then touching your eyes, nose and mouth. 

There’s no one-and-done knockout treatment for a summer cold. Keeping up with fluids is important, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says. And over-the-counter medications may help relieve some of the achy symptoms that often accompany a viral infection. “That [symptom] is really coming from the immune system fighting it,” Foster says.

A nasal saline rinse can help to clear out congestion. “It makes you breathe better, especially if you do it before you go to bed,” Foster says. When it comes to soothing a cough, there’s plenty of evidence that honey can help.

If you start to experience more severe symptoms — you have a fever over 100.5 for a number of days, you feel weak, are having trouble keeping down fluids or feel short of breath — seek medical attention, Block says. “People who are older and who are immunocompromised are more likely to have this happen from a variety of viruses,” Block says.  

Finally, while there isn’t a vaccine that can help prevent the common cold, there are vaccines that can blunt the symptoms of other respiratory illness-causing germs, like COVID, RSV and the flu. “All the viruses and other illnesses that are out there is more reason to take advantage of all the vaccines that we have available,” Block says. “People just really need to put [those vaccine appointments] on their schedule for September or October,” Foster adds.