Chest X-rays may be done to look for infection in the lungs. Bronchitis usually clears up as the cold or flu goes away. You can help feel better faster by doing the following:.
Take medicine as directed. You may be told to take ibuprofen or other over-the-counter medicines. These help relieve inflammation in your bronchial tubes.
Your healthcare provider may prescribe an inhaler to help open up the bronchial tubes. Most of the time, acute bronchitis is caused by a viral infection. Antibiotics are usually not prescribed for viral infections. Drink plenty of fluids, such as water, juice, or warm soup. Fluids loosen mucus so that you can cough it up.
This helps you breathe more easily. Fluids also prevent dehydration. Follow up with your doctor as you are told. You will likely feel better in a week or two.
Oxygen therapy : In severe cases, a person may need supplemental oxygen to ease their breathing. Which home remedy is best for bronchitis?
Doing breathing exercises, such as pursed-lip breathing, can help slow down breathing, and make it more effective. Should people exercise when they have bronchitis? If acute bronchitis results from a bacterial infection, a doctor may prescribe antibiotics.
Taking antibiotics may also help prevent a secondary infection, in some cases. Most doctors will not prescribe antibiotics unless they have identified bacteria as the cause of an illness. One of the reasons for this is concern about antibiotic resistance, as overuse of antibiotics makes it harder to treat an infection in the long term. Find out more about antibiotics, their uses, and the problem of antibiotic resistance. A doctor will carry out a physical examination, using a stethoscope to listen for unusual sounds in the lungs.
The most common complication of bronchitis is pneumonia. This can happen if the infection spreads further into the lungs. In a person with pneumonia, the air sacs within the lungs fill with fluid. Pneumonia is more likely to develop in older adults, smokers, those with other medical conditions, and anyone with a weakened immune system. It can be life threatening and needs medical attention. Learn more here about pneumonia. Most people with bronchitis can recover at home with rest, anti-inflammatory medication, and plenty of fluids.
However, a person should see a doctor if they have the following :. Anyone with an existing lung or heart condition should see a doctor if they start to have symptoms of bronchitis. It is not always possible to prevent acute or chronic bronchitis, but several things can reduce the risk.
Find out more about the flu and how to prevent it. Acute bronchitis is a common condition. It can be uncomfortable, but it will usually resolve on its own within a few days. Chronic bronchitis is an ongoing condition. If a person smokes and continues to smoke, they may develop worsening symptoms, emphysema, and COPD. All these conditions can be life threatening. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease COPD refers to two lung diseases that cause difficulty breathing.
Smoking is the most common cause. Learn more…. Bronchitis is a lung infection that leads to a phlegm-producing cough and breathing problems. Bronchiectasis is a lung condition that causes persistent cough and excess phlegm. It can lead to fatal complications. Treatment can help relieve…. Home remedies that are recommended to ease bronchitis include using a humidifier, wearing a face mask, drinking warm liquids, and may more.
The seasonal influenza vaccination contains three different influenza viruses two As and one B. Vaccination and chemoprophylaxis with amantadine, rimantadine, or oseltamivir are useful for the prevention of seasonal influenza disease in high-risk groups.
Use of antiviral medications for postexposure chemoprophylaxis should be reserved for persons at higher risk for influenza-related complications who have had contact with someone likely to have been infected with influenza.
An emphasis on early treatment once a patient has developed symptoms, rather than chemoprophylaxis, should reduce opportunities for development of oseltamivir resistance. Chemoprophylaxis should not be used for prevention of illness among healthy persons after exposures in community settings.
This first-in-class drug inhibits the production of the cap-dependent endonuclease protein within the flu virus. This viral protein is essential for viral replication. Vaccination campaigns begin in mid-August and end in mid-November. Vaccination is recommended for all persons over 6 months of age. Pertussis also known as whooping cough was once a rare disease but is now becoming more common in the US.
The word pertussis means cough, and the pathognomonic whoop following a paroxysmal coughing episode aids greatly in diagnosis. In the US. Bordetella pertussis is a gram-negative cocco-bacillus.
The incubation period for pertussis is 7—10 days, which is followed by the catarrhal phase. During the catarrhal phase, the disease is indistinguishable from an upper respiratory tract infection. The person is most infectious during this phase, which is characterized by the insidious onset of coryza, sneezing, low-grade fever, and a mild occasional cough similar to the cough of the common cold. The cough gradually becomes more severe and after 1—2 weeks, the second, or paroxysmal, stage begins.
The paroxysmal phase begins with episodic, sudden coughing and generally lasts 2—4 weeks. The cough is so severe that patients are unable to sleep or eat. The whoop, if present, results from inspiratory stridor and is pathognomonic. The patient has paroxysms of numerous, rapid coughs.
When paroxysm ends, a long inspiratory effort is usually accompanied by a pathognomonic high-pitched whoop. During such an attack, the patient may become cyanotic. Vomiting and exhaustion commonly follow the episode. The patient usually appears normal between attacks. Paroxysmal coughing attacks occur more frequently at night, with an average of 15 attacks per 24 hours. Severe cases result in hemoptysis, subconjunctival hemorrhages, hernias, seizures, and death.
Adults with pertussis infection may complain of chronic cough. They may be asymptomatic or they may present with an illness that ranges from a mild cough to classic pertussis, with persistent cough lasting more than 7 days. Inspiratory whoop is uncommon. B pertussis is inhaled on respiratory droplets and attaches to the ciliated epithelium in the trachea. The pertussis toxin causes almost all of the tissue damage in the trachea. This causes death and sloughing of the ciliated cells. Other products of importance are the tracheal cytotoxin and a filamentous hemagglutinin.
The cytotoxin kills the cells that line the trachea, and the filamentous hemagglutinin is important in the attachment of B pertussis to the ciliated cells. Large amounts of mucus are produced in response to the infection and cause the patient to cough. The neurologic effects of infection are associated with hypoxia, lymphocyte plugging, and intracerebral hemorrhage. The presence of the whoop is pathognomonic for pertussis. Laboratory procedures necessary for diagnosis include nasopharyngeal aspirates plated on Bordet-Gengou medium, immunofluorescent staining of nasal secretions for B pertussis, and serologic testing ELISA with acute and convalescent sera.
An elevated white blood cell count with a lymphocytosis is usually present in children, which is unusual for a bacterial infection. Most bacterial infections result in an increase in neutrophils rather than an increase in lymphocytes. Antibiotics are ineffective in shortening the course of pertussis infection once the patient has entered the paroxysmal stage.
If antibiotics are given, erythromycin is the drug of choice and will eradicate the organism from secretions and decrease spread of the infection to others and, if initiated early, may modify the course of the illness. Supportive care is essential in the prevention of hypoxia and pulmonary complications. An antibiotic effective against pertussis e. The best means of preventing pertussis is vaccination. The most commonly used vaccine is the acellular pertussis vaccine DTaP , which is mixed with diphtheria and tetanus toxoids and is given to children aged 6 weeks to 6 years.
Pediatrics 6 One in 20 children whose parents do not get them vaccinated against pertussis will get this disease whereas only 1 in children who were vaccinated developed pertussis. Because of the waning immunity of adolescents and adults to pertussis and asymptomatic infections that spread from asymptomatic adolescents and adults to unprotected infants, vaccine recommendations have been expanded to give persons older than 10 years of age the tetanus-diphtheria-acellular pertussis vaccine rather than the tetanus-diphtheria vaccine for their scheduled booster shot.
Respiratory viruses that infect the upper respiratory tract: Influenza viruses A and B, parainfluenza viruses, adenovirus, respiratory syncytial virus, herpes simplex virus, rhinovirus, coxsackievirus groups A and B, and echovirus. Mycoplasma pneumoniae Chlamydophila pneumoniae. Acute bronchitis usually occurs after a previous upper respiratory tract infection with extension of the infection to the bronchial tree.
It is most common in the winter months, similar to most other respiratory diseases. Air pollution increases the number of cases of bronchitis. Acute bronchitis is a self-limiting disease in healthy adults and resolves within 7—10 days. Predisposing factors for the development of acute bronchitis in children include poor nutrition, allergy, deficiencies in IgG2, IgG3, and IgG4 subclasses, and rickets.
Older patients who have emphysema or chronic respiratory disease e. The incidence of bronchiolitis parallels respiratory infections in older children and adults and is most common during fall and winter months. Although infection with respiratory syncytial virus may occur at any age, the clinical disease bronchiolitis develops only in infants and young children.
The infection is usually self-limiting. Bronchiolitis is an acute viral infection with a favorable outcome; fatalities rarely occur. The virus is transmitted from person-to-person by direct contact with nasal secretions or by airborne droplets. Houben et al. Adults are infectious from 1 day before symptoms begin through approximately 5 days after onset of illness. Severely immunocompromised persons can shed the virus for weeks to months. Rates of influenza infection are highest among children, but rates of serious illness and death are highest among persons aged 65 or older and persons of any age who have medical conditions that place them at high risk for complications from influenza e.
Epidemics of influenza usually occur every year during the winter months and are responsible for an average of approximately 36, deaths per year in the US. Epidemic flu is cyclic and is usually caused by virus types A or B.
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