by Eric Lannak

Created on: October 13, 2010   Last Updated: April 27, 2011

At first it’s a dry cough, sometimes beginning during a cold, sometimes after, and sometimes on its own. The cough grows more insistent, and a day or two later it starts producing… stuff. Soon it’s a nuisance, and you find yourself barking away as you walk, talk, eat, or try to sleep. After a week of this you decide to see a doctor.

Doctors might be able to give you something to knock down the cough, but in most cases that’s all they’ll do. If you were healthy in the first place, you likely have what’s called “acute bronchitis”, an illness that typically lasts a couple weeks and clears up on its own. There are no medicines for it, no cure, and no vaccine. It’s almost as common, and contagious, as the common cold. In fact, it may very well BE the common cold.

THE CHEST COLD

Acute bronchitis used to be called a “chest cold”, and it’s an accurate description, as most cases of acute bronchitis are caused by the same viruses that cause the common head cold. The rhinovirus, adenovirus, and Coxsackievirus strains that infect nasal passage linings will also infect airway linings in the lungs. They have the same effect in both locations, causing inflammation and increased mucus production.

In a head cold this is mainly a nuisance, causing stuffiness and a runny nose. In the bronchi, however, it narrows the airways and makes breathing slightly difficult, and the excess mucous can only be cleared by coughing. The cough is what makes acute bronchitis so contagious, producing an aerosol of microscopic droplets that can carry the illness to people many feet away.

Even after the mist settles, these viruses can remain infectious for several days. Someone can pick them up on the skin of their hand and will catch a cold after a casual wipe of the mouth or nose. And some will contract bronchitis.

BACTERIAL BRONCHITIS

An estimated 10% of acute bronchitis involves bacteria, either as a secondary infection (occurring after a viral infection set in) or as the primary infection. They tend to last longer, often a month or more.

Bacteria, however, can usually be knocked out with antibiotics. Doctors typically will not prescribe these drugs in the first week or two of bronchitis, but they will usually try them for more persistent cases.

Bacterial infections are contagious, even for a week or two after symptoms have subsided. The most common bacterial causes are mycoplasma pneumoniae and chlamydia pneumoniae, which

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