By VIC­TO­RIA MILKO | AS­SO­CI­AT­ED PRESS

(AP) — How do I know if I have a cold, the flu or COVID-19? Ex­perts say test­ing is the best way to de­ter­mine what you have since symp­toms of the ill­ness­es can over­lap.

The virus­es that cause colds, the flu and COVID-19 are spread the same way — through droplets from the nose and mouth of in­fect­ed peo­ple. And they can all be spread be­fore a per­son re­al­izes they’re in­fect­ed.

The time varies for when some­one with any of the ill­ness­es will start feel­ing sick. Some peo­ple in­fect­ed with the coro­n­avirus don’t ex­pe­ri­ence any symp­toms, but it’s still pos­si­ble for them to spread it.

Cough, fever, tired­ness and mus­cle aches are com­mon to both the flu and COVID-19, says Kris­ten Cole­man, as as­sis­tant re­search pro­fes­sor at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Mary­land School of Pub­lic Health. Symp­toms spe­cif­ic to COVID-19 in­clude the loss of taste or smell.

Com­mon colds, mean­while, tend to be milder with symp­toms in­clud­ing a stuffy nose and sore throat. Fevers are more com­mon with the flu.

De­spite some false por­tray­als on­line, the virus­es have not merged to cre­ate a new ill­ness. But it’s pos­si­ble to get the flu and COVID-19 at the same time, which some are call­ing “flurona.”

“A co-in­fec­tion of any kind can be se­vere or wors­en your symp­toms al­to­geth­er,” says Cole­man. “If in­fluen­za cas­es con­tin­ue to rise, we can ex­pect to see more of these types of vi­ral co-in­fec­tions in the com­ing weeks or months.”

With many sim­i­lar symp­toms caused by the three virus types, test­ing re­mains the best op­tion to de­ter­mine which one you may have. At-home tests for flu aren’t as wide­ly avail­able as those for COVID-19, but some phar­ma­cies of­fer test­ing for both virus­es at the same time, Cole­man notes. This can help doc­tors pre­scribe the right treat­ment.

Lab­o­ra­to­ries might al­so be able to screen sam­ples for var­i­ous res­pi­ra­to­ry virus­es, in­clud­ing com­mon cold virus­es. But most do not have the ca­pac­i­ty to rou­tine­ly do this, es­pe­cial­ly dur­ing a COVID-19 surge, Cole­man says.

Get­ting vac­ci­nat­ed helps re­duce the spread of the virus­es. The U.S. Cen­ters for Dis­ease Con­trol and Pre­ven­tion says it is safe to get a flu and COVID-19 shot or boost­er at the same time.