The cough everyone seems to have lately could be caused by a new virus, researchers have said. They found that it did not respond to any antibiotics.
Researchers have explained where the cough that many people have been experiencing lately comes from. They suspect that a certain virus may be the cause. Influenza, COVID and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) cases are on the rise, they said.
Recently, a TikTok user stated that: Everyone seems to have “a cough that lasts for weeks.” And doctors noticed it. “We’ve seen an unusually high number of patients who had typical viral upper respiratory infections but had a persistent cough that lasted weeks or months,” Dr. Scott Braunstein, an internal medicine and medicine physician, told HuffPost dual board certified emergency physician and national medical director of Sollis Health.
What causes persistent cough
Dr. Janet O’Mahony, an internal medicine physician at Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore, Maryland, said it’s another pathogen that attacks and irritates our respiratory system. He said many patients came to him with sinus congestion, sore throats and post-nasal drip.
Why do we cough during this period? It could be a new virus. Photo source: 12032072 © Piyapong Thongcharoen | Dreamstime.com
“This chest cold has a really junky, persistent cough,” O’Mahony told HuffPost. They tested negative for flu and COVID. In addition, they do not respond to antibiotics, which suggests that it is “purely viral”.
A rhinovirus could be the culprit
The doctor believes that the disease is “caused by common viruses that cause colds, such as rhinovirus, non-Covid coronaviruses or adenoviruses.” And Theodore Strange, an internal medicine physician at Northwell Health, believes an adenovirus or rhinovirus could be to blame.
How long patients are contagious
These viruses cause flu-like and cold-like symptoms that can last for a period of time. It can cause inflammation and irritation in the throat, nose and chest. For some people, this inflammation can persist for two weeks to two months, a doctor explained.
“With colds, we usually think of the first three days as the worst for spreading, but the contagiousness can persist longer than that,” O’Mahony said.
The doctor also said that patients remain contagious for about five to seven days. People with a low immune system are most affected Yahoo.
2023-12-09 16:07:30
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