To ask how often do you get colds/ flu?

[Hereinmyarms]

How often on average do people get colds and flu?

This is NOT a stealth boast - I haven’t had a cold for 3 years and I am actually quite worried about it. I know that’s ridiculous - but I am worried it’s been so long, when I do get it- if will be bad!

My partner seems to be ill all the bloody time- he’s always got a cold or some bug. I work at a uni and I am wondering if I have just developed a good immune system as have been around students a lot over a long time.

Anyway- what is the ‘norm’? I have probably had flu twice in my life and both times when my kids were little and I was tired etc. I think that’s fairly normal to only have flu rarely.

Anyway- it’s weirdly bothering me. Obviously I don’t want to be ill but I am worried it’s been a while and it will be worse when it comes 🤪

Colds I seem to get on and off all winter. COVID I get once a year or seems. I have never had proper flu in my 63 years.

Since I stopped working in an open plan office six y6ars ago, I have never even had sniffle.

Flu once in my life, colds I used to get 4/5 a year but now I take vitamin d and multivitamins I only seem to get 1 or 2 a year. I am a reception teacher so I live and breathe germs 24/7. I have noticed that the key stage 2 staff don’t seem to get as ill as us so it might be that you don’t come into close contact with so many bugs as other people.

I have had covid twice- once right at the start of the pandemic and never been so ill. And once since in 2022 but not since then.

I am 53 so in theory more prone to all of this too as I age.

I have a couple of colds every year. Flu I've had twice in my life. The severity and frequency of my colds massively reduced when I quit smoking.

I've never had flu. Last time I had a cold was maybe 4 years ago I think.

I get appeox. 5 colds a year and flu normally once a year. This has been since I had kids. I have a 5 year old and 2 year old who both seem to be constantly ill with something.

I've never had the flu. I haven't had COVID either and I get a cold maybe once every few years, haven't had one in along time now I think of it.

Edited to say I get gastro bugs and tummy upsets a few times a year, maybe 3 times, I just seem to have a sensitive gastro system but a robust respiratory system.

So infrequently I think the last time I had such symptoms was when I had covid for the second time in 2022.

I did get swine flu about 20 years ago, and I've had glandular fever twice as an adult. It seems I miss all the low-level coughs and colds and wait until something that will knock me for six comes along.

I get loads but I work in a school

Flu once. Colds maybe once a year. Have had covid probably 4 times but none were terrible.

I sometimes get a bit of a sniffle, but the last time I felt properly ill was 5-6 years ago.

I'm in my 40s, have had flu twice in my life and the last time I had a cold was during the pandemic, so 6 years ago. Not been ill at all in the last 6 years

I probably haven't either, I probably get a cold about every 3-5 years, I had Covid once and flu twice in my lifetime, I'm late 60s

A cold a couple of times a year. Some years I'm unlucky and get more. If I get them close to each other I check with my doctor that's everything's OK (in another country so not NHS).

As for flu, not sure I've ever had it although certainly been bed bound with bad colds once or twice in my life.

I've had flu twice in my life, I'm early 60s. I've had covid once, it was very mild for me. Since covid I've taken a highish dose of vitamin D every day and I haven't had so much of a sniffle since <crosses fingers>

I haven't had a cold since 2024. I used to get one a year when I was working...I was a GP so think I must have developed immunity to bugs.

"I am 53 so in theory more prone to all of this too as I age."

Eh? Aren't we less likely to get colds as we get older? We're immune to more of them...

I'm retired now but when I was at work it seemed to be the younger ones in their 20s and 30s that got colds a lot, probably because some had young children. I used to sit there thinking I hope I don't catch it and I usually didn't

Flu once in 1998.
COVID three times, twice I was asymptomatic.
Colds: I bring them back from work and I infect my partner about twice a year, but I only get cold symptoms myself every four years or so on average.

Have never had flu, have never had covid. I suffered with sinus infections for a few years in my twenties, but don't seem to get them anymore.
I'm 51 with three teens. Can't remember the last time I had a cold.

I used to catch something almost every time I went in an airplane but I read about Vicks First Defence on here, have used it religiously before and after every flight and not been ill since.

Probably about twice a year a minor cold.

a bad cold about every two years.

during the pandemic I managed to not have a cough or cold for about 2 years. I had never needed to have one of the horrible PCR tests up the nose and throat which I was glad about as they were really strict at work (nhs)

I rarely get colds, probably the last bad one was covid in 2021

I don't know, several times a year, 4+ but probably more than that. Not just the sniffles, most of them are wooly head, temperature all over eachother, barely able to function level.

But I've got kids at primary school, and due to being quite complicated kids, I am pretty sleep deprived, so constantly run down.

I get a tummy bug every 1-2 years, always brought home by the kids.