When should you be worried about a dry cough as a sign of COVID-19?

“It may feel like a sense of needing to clear your throat or could be deeper in terms of large airways irritated as well,” Dr. Holmes, D.N.P., R.N., a clinical associate professor at Rutgers University School of Nursing. Ultimately, it feels a lot like your lungs are irritated, says Aline M. You can also feel like you’re having dryness, a tickle, or tightness in your chest, Dr. In general, it can feel like any cough without the phlegm. Bacterial infections, like bronchitis and pneumonia, however, are more likely to cause a wet cough, he says. “A dry cough is most commonly seen in viral infections,” says Thomas Russo, M.D., professor and chief of infectious disease at the University at Buffalo in New York. But experts say there are actually a lot of different things that can cause a dry cough. It’s easy to think that you have COVID-19 when you develop a dry cough (and it’s entirely possible you do). “A dry cough is an irritating cough, but you’re not bringing anything up,” says William Schaffner, M.D., an infectious disease specialist and professor at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. If you’re regularly producing phlegm when you cough, you’re likely dealing with a wet cough. “Your wet cough might seem like a dry cough to me,” he says.īut, in general, a dry cough means you’re coughing but nothing is coming up, like phlegm or mucus, says Purvi Parikh, M.D., an allergist with Allergy & Asthma Network. That’s because it’s open to interpretation. There’s actually no specific medical criteria to classify a dry cough and a wet cough, explains David Cutler, M.D., a family medicine physician at Providence Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, Calif. Do you have a dry cough from COVID? The flu? RSV? Something else entirely? Either way, it makes sense to be a little wary if you happen to develop a dry cough.īut what does it mean if you happen to develop a dry cough and, while we’re at it, what is a dry cough, anyway? Here’s the deal. But these days, it’s understandable to be on high alert for a slew of possible illnesses. If you developed a dry cough a few years ago, you may have simply written it off as having a cold.

When to call your doctor for a dry cough.

When should you be worried about a dry cough as a sign of COVID-19?.

Marsden et al reported that the parameter of nocturnal cough could be a valid indicator for asthma control. In asthma, symptoms usually worsen at night and cause awakenings affecting the quality of life. This cough reflex has neuroplasticity in such a way that hypersensitive response is triggered over time because of the cough itself causing chronic irritation and inflammation and leading to tissue remodeling.Īsthma is a highly prevalent chronic respiratory disease with nocturnal cough as one of the presenting features. Nocturnal cough is distressing and may cause disturbances in sleep. Women tend to have a chronic cough more often and have heightened cough reflex sensitivity compared to men. Impairment or absence of the coughing mechanism can be dangerous and even fatal in disease. A cough is a symptom and a reflex action that is an essential protective and defensive act that secures the removal of mucus, noxious substances, and infections from the larynx, trachea, and larger bronchi.

Nocturnal cough definition