Acute bronchitis

For a lay person:

Acute bronchitis is an infection that inflames the main airways of the lungs, usually caused by a virus and often following a cold. It causes a cough, sometimes bringing up mucus, along with chest soreness and tiredness. Most people get better on their own within about three weeks.

For a trained medical person:

Self-limiting inflammation of the trachea and bronchi, overwhelmingly viral, presenting as cough for up to three weeks with or without sputum and without signs of pneumonia. Diagnosis is clinical; chest radiography is indicated only if pneumonia is suspected from abnormal vital signs or focal chest signs. Management is symptomatic and antibiotics are not routinely recommended, except for higher-risk patients such as frail older adults or those with significant comorbidity.

In Chinese medicine:

Liu and Tseng's textbook differentiates this condition into these patterns: Wind-Cold; Wind-Heat; Wind-Dryness; Phlegm-Heat. Treatment follows the pattern a patient presents with, not the Western diagnosis alone.

When to get help: Seek urgent care for breathlessness, chest pain, coughing up blood, confusion or a high fever, which may signal pneumonia. See a doctor if the cough lasts more than three weeks or you have heart or lung disease.