Editor’s Note: Cough is a very common clinical problem and is also the most easily treated disease.
Many patients will ask if antibiotics are needed for cough. Can cough cause pneumonia for a long time? What should I do with a cough?
This article gives you answers to these questions.
How do you know if cough is caused by cold?
Under normal circumstances, cough lasting less than 3 weeks is called acute cough. Subacute cough occurred between 3 and 8 weeks. Those older than 8 weeks are called chronic cough.
A cough caused by a cold is usually an acute cough.
Here, we should correct a misunderstanding about colds, that is, to distinguish the real colds, that is, upper respiratory tract infection and allergic rhinitis. The treatment methods for the two diseases are completely different.
One of the easiest ways is to look at the symptoms.
- A cold is characterized by sore throat, Can be accompanied or not accompanied by nasal congestion, runny nose, sneezing and other nasal symptoms, pharyngeal pain if not treated to last for a week. However, allergic rhinitis is mainly based on nasal symptoms, including frequent sneezing, runny nose and nasal congestion, which often occur suddenly, but if effectively treated, it can usually be terminated or relieved within hours to 1 day.
Can you get pneumonia after coughing for a long time?
This is a misconception, the fact is [cough itself does not cause pneumonia, on the contrary, pneumonia causes cough].
Cough is only a symptom. It can be caused by many reasons. Pneumonia is only one of them.
Once again, I would like to stress that the so-called cold usually comes with sore throat.
Elderly patients and some patients with basic diseases such as COPD, some viruses such as influenza virus may cause airway mucosal epithelium to fall off and mucosal immune function to be lost, which is easy to lead to bacterial invasion and pneumonia.
Do you want to take medicine for cough?
Because the causes of cough are relatively complex, and most cough has nothing to do with bacterial infection, therefore, for ordinary people, it is not appropriate to use antibiotics at will when coughing.
On the one hand, it is useless; On the other hand, it will increase the drug resistance of bacteria. Moreover, there are many kinds of antibiotics. How to choose them is not well known to ordinary people.
Acute cough after catching a cold can usually relieve itself within 2 weeks. At present, there is no specific treatment method, mainly symptomatic treatment.
The first generation of antihistamines/decongestants (bromphenamine/pseudoephedrine) or non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs are preferred to relieve the symptoms of cough and nasal secretions flowing back into throat (postnasal drip).
It is not recommended to use central antitussive drugs (codeine, dextromethorphan), let alone abuse antibiotics. It is emphasized that antibiotics must be taken under the guidance of doctors.
Why do you cough after catching a cold?
Acute cough after catching a cold is mainly caused by virus causing nasal secretions to flow back into throat and inflammatory substances produced by viral upper respiratory tract infection acting on airway sensory endings, causing cough. This cough sensitivity increases for 4 weeks before it can return to normal.
This is why after catching a cold, the cough reaction is greater after being slightly stimulated (such as cold air and lampblack).
Then some people will ask, why do other people catch a cold and cough for a short time and slightly, and why do I still suffer from it for a long time?
This may be due to the fact that we are infected by different respiratory viruses. Different respiratory viruses have different degrees of damage to respiratory epithelium. For example, rhinovirus usually does not cause substantial damage to respiratory epithelium, while adenovirus, influenza virus, parainfluenza virus and respiratory syncytial virus often cause extensive damage to respiratory epithelium.
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This article has been peer reviewed by Dr. Clove’s Review Expert Committee.
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