Cold season is almost here and with it comes a nasty issue that millions of people experience every year: bronchitis. Acute infectious bronchitis gives the affected individual a sore throat, nasty cough, fever, body aches, and even headaches. Synonymous with inflammation of the bronchi, this disease is, nevertheless, ordinary and perfectly benign.
People who suffer from bronchitis should not be frightened by their symptoms, a simple visit to the Urgent Care in Nocatee is enough to ensure the issue goes away in a few days.
Acute bronchitis:
Acute bronchitis is characterized by inflammation of the bronchi. This disease most often results from a viral infection, and sometimes a bacterial one. The first signs of bronchitis are often a cold or rhinopharyngitis, also known as an inflammation of the nose and throat.
Then a dry cough follows, and then, in 50% of cases a nasty cough appears. This is one of the most commonly seen benign diseases reviewed by Urgent Care in Nocatee. Bronchitis mainly occurs in autumn and winter, and it often occurs in small epidemics.
Symptoms:
Acute bronchitis is characterized by:
Generally low and variable fever during the day
Body aches
A general malaise
A burning sensation in the chest at the level of the sternum
A nasty cough
It also happens that, before bronchitis, the patient may have had a small common cold. Older generations say that bronchitis is the body’s way of expelling that cold. In its second stage, the dry cough becomes less and less apparent and the other signs disappear.
An accurate diagnosis
To diagnose bronchitis, a complete clinical examination and a doctor’s auscultation (when the doctor listens to your chest with his or her stethoscope) are enough. In 99.9 percent of cases, auscultation can pick up bronchitis and, thus, there is no reason to perform additional testing. On the other hand, it can be more severe in people with asthma, with an increase in symptoms and more risks of bacterial superinfection.
Smokers who suffer from bronchitis should be aware of very serious chronic issues that can arise from regular bouts of the disease. For instance, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (or COPD) is a deadly issue that is more complicated than the simple seasonal epidemics of acute bronchitis that most people experience. Visit Avecina Medical at https://avecina.com/ to learn more.
