Describing the common cold or flu in Spanish

Question

In English, when talking about common viruses people often get, there are generally two categories:

• a cold is generally more mild and can come with runny nose, sneezing, coughing, sore throat, etc.
• a flu is generally more severe and can bring fever, chills, fatigue, etc.

In my experience with Spanish, almost all of this tends to be wrapped up in one word: gripe. What are the official and informal ways of referring to these diseases? What words exist in Spanish and what varieties of illness do they refer to? What regional variation exists?

Answer 1

At least in Mexico which is where I come from:

As you say gripe or gripa are used to refer to both the common cold and the flu. This is the colloquial way of saying it.

It would be more correct to refer to the common cold as

resfriado / catarro

and to the flu as

gripe / gripa / influenza

but it is not that common, like I said, where I come from.