There’s also been an uptick in anecdotal reports of a brutal, long-lasting cough going around. As one TikTok user put it: everyone seems to have “a hacking cough that’s been going on for weeks.”
Doctors around the country have noticed it, too. “We have been seeing an unusually large number of patients who had typical viral upper respiratory infections, but have had a lingering cough that has lasted weeks to months,” Dr. Scott Braunstein, a double-board certified internal medicine and emergency medicine physician and the national medical director of Sollis Health, told HuffPost.
In fact, Braunstein said the persistent cough is most likely due to prolonged inflammation in the airways — even after the virus is gone, the body continues to produce mucus and have bronchospasms, which is when the muscles in the airways tighten and cause a cough. For some people, this inflammation can persist anywhere from two weeks to two months, he explained.
If your symptoms persist for a couple weeks, you’ll want to continue following up with your physician. There are some serious bacterial infections, including mycoplasma (aka walking pneumonia), legionella and pneunococcal pneumonia, that can cause a hacking cough.
If your doctor suspects any of these, they can run tests and prescribe the appropriate antibiotics, Strange said. In addition, some people may develop a secondary bacterial or new viral infection, according to Braunstein. Warning signs of this include a new fever and darker or more severe phlegm.
Stay safe out there.
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