What is Bronchitis? Is bronchitis contagious? A lot of you might be confused or scared about reality.
To those who don’t know about it and haven’t experienced the disease, this blog will help you educated yourself about the problem and its contagious nature. It’s defined as “swelling of bronchial tubes with a function to supply air from mouth or nose towards your lungs.
Now, let’s talk about the basics. There are two types of Bronchitis:
a) Acute Bronchitis
This type is mainly associated with a cough with mucus secretions, soreness of chest, breathing shortness alongside fever.point 251 |
Bronchitis is mainly caused by a virus empowering infection or flu.point 57 | The time frame for the infection to last is about 5 days to several weeks depending upon the situation.point 142 | Hence the acute type can be contagious too.point 178 | 1
Is Bronchitis Contagious in its Acute form? Yes as acute bronchitis is correlated to the flue so it is contagious.
b) Chronic Bronchitis
The chronic type of bronchitis is a severe infection accompanied by mucus with a cough. The most common cause of this type is the irritation of Bronchial tubes tissues. The major cause of the illness is due to pollution and exposure to smoking.
Symptoms of Bronchitis
In order to track down Bronchitis you need to check for the symptoms and then take precautionary steps for its treatment. Some of the other symptoms are listed as:
- Coughing
- Sputum production of white to yellowish color sometimes streaked with blood
- Fatigue
- Shortening of Breath
- Fever and cold
- Discomfort in Chest
In the acute type of bronchitis, the chances are that there may be symptoms of cold with a mild headache along with body aches. However, these symptoms will last for a week and then nagging cough may take over for several weeks.
Is Bronchitis Contagious?
YES! Viruses and viral infections cause bronchitis as we mentioned earlier. Viruses are highly contagious and thus it makes Bronchitis contagious. These viruses can spread from person to person. However, the life span of these viruses is just a few weeks until they die off.
It must be noted that only the Acute type of bronchitis is contagious. Surprisingly, the Chronic type is not contagious but it’s very serious for health and needs doctor consultation immediately.
You should also note that mainly influenza is the only cause of acute bronchitis, which is a virus that causes cold. That is why it makes Acute Bronchitis is Contagious. However, influenza is not involved with the Chronic type as the driving forces for this are mainly smoking and air pollution.
So far, you have the answer to the question ‘Is bronchitis contagious?’ Let us define a little easier for you again. The Acute type of bronchitis is contagious as mainly air droplets spread it. The droplets are microscopic and a naked eye cannot see it. Airborne droplets are responsible for spreading it in the bronchial tubes of humans. Another way of transmission of the virus is by shaking hands and other ways of physical contact.
Prevention
In order to cope up and reduce the risks of the disease, it is better that you should read the following preventions carefully.
Avoid cigarette smoke
Firstly, cigarette smoke increases your risk of chronic Stop and avoid passive smoking as it’s the main cause of chronic Bronchitis
Proper Treatment
Secondly, go for proper treatment and medicate yourself. Take vaccines that the doctor recommends.
Washing Hands
Thirdly, make the habit of washing hands for at least 20 seconds and use alcohol in order to prevent the virus from entering your body.
Wear a dust Proof Mask
And last but not least, use a face mask when subjected to dirt or smoke but if there is no pollution, you are also okay without it.
How to Treat Bronchitis?
The treatment of chronic bronchitis depends upon the symptoms and providing relief. As per your conditions, the physician can prescribe the following medicines.
- Cough medicines: Prescribed in order to control and reduce cough.point 56 |
- Antibiotics: Mostly used to treat bacterial infections
- Bronchodilators: These will open up the tight Bronchial tubes and provide relief.point 174 |
- Anti-inflammatory medicine: When symptoms are severe to reduce the inflammation of bronchial tissues, we use this medicine.point 281 |
ADVERTISEMENT - Oxygen therapy: We get this therapy when the patient is facing difficulty in breathing.point 74 |
- Mucolytics
These help in the thinning of the mucus and making it easy to cough.point 139 | All the parameters to answer the question, is Bronchitis contagious? ‘ are verified and you have the necessary answers about the disease.point 257 |
Now it’s up to you how you cope up with the disease and spread awareness.point 61 | Anyhow, you must always rush to your doctor for more authentic information.point 125 | 1