In Most Cases, A Cough Caused By Viruses, And Antibiotics To Treat It Impractical.
You've been hacking and coughing for a week now - isn't it day that the cough was through? Sadly, the fulfil is often "no," and experts report in that many man have a mistaken idea of how long an acute cough should last. This misconception can lead to the supererogatory (and, for public safety, dangerous) overuse of antibiotics, a new study finds. "No one wants or likes a slow cough.
Patients simply want to get rid of it," said Dr Robert Graham, an internist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. "After back-breaking over-the-counter regimens for about a week, they seize their doctors with the hopes of obtaining a prescription antibiotic for a self-limited working order that is usually caused by viruses," which do not respond to antibiotics who was not involved in the new study.
So how prolonged does the average acute cough really last? The team of researchers from the University of Georgia, in Athens, reviewed medical circulars and found that the average duration of an acute cough is nearly three weeks (17,8 days). They then surveyed nearly 500 adults and found that they reported that their cough lasted an commonplace of seven to nine days. And if a unswerving believes an acute cough should last about a week, they are more acceptable to ask their doctor for antibiotics after five to six days of having a cough, the researchers noted.