Continuous cough....

[notsosureatwork]

Can someone tell me exactly what is meant by "continuous cough"?

Sorry if that sounds confusing but the advice I got from 111 was that if a cough was persistent and uncontrollable then that's continuous but in all honesty he didnt sound like he had a clue either.

Others are saying if it's a normal cough cough cough stop, then cough again in a few hours or the next day , then that's continuous. So to me it's very confusing that word and 111 was no help.

I don't know either. It is confusing.

Thanks. I'm glad its not just me. I have tried googling this and then eventually called 111, but he didnt sound knowledgable at all.

I think a continuous cough is one which isn't going away and you're coughing a lot through out the day.
One that districts daily life. A normal cough won't stop you doing much.

I have just read that it is a cough, however mild. I think continual just means, as opposed to a one off coughing fit caused by allergy or something. My son had a new cold on Thursday and started coughing mildly on Friday. He is not unwell in him self and has no fever, but I still think this qualifies him to stay at home for a week.
www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/14/coronavirus-nhs-private-hospitals-join-forces-academics-warn-over-strategy

So say i coughed 3 times yesterday but nothing since then i still have to self isolate?

I've got a cough. I can't suppress it, I cough every few minutes and if I take a deep breath my chest is tight and makes me cough more.

It might be Corona virus, or it might not. I had very similar over half term, but am self isolating as the symptoms are the same as CV. Coughing, aches and fever started fairly suddenly on Friday afternoon.

See @dinosapple I probably would class that as continuous, given that you cant suppress it.

On the flip side, I've seen posts on here with people "shouting" at others who are saying that wont self isolate because they coughed a few times hours ago.

It is just A COUGH. ANY COUGH..
A cough that continues. I.e. not, I cleared out a dusty cupboard on Thursday and coughed a couple of times, but a cough that is there on and off all day, like one you get with a cold, just any cough, even a very mild one. Anything that would cause you to say "I have a cough"
Yes, confusing, but only if you overthink it.

@coulddowithanap I would say no but I'm obviously not qualified. I reckon it would have been more helpful if the govt just said "new cough".

Is this "continuous cough" a thing in other countries too or have they phrased if differently in other parts of the world?

Whats confusing about it. If you cough on and off all day it's continuous.
If you cough a couple of times because of dust or an allergy that's not.
No two people will cough the same amount with the same time between coughs.
You know if you're coughing continuously. I think you're over thinking it.

Everyone here must surely know if they develop something not normal for them ???
I’m asthmatic and have coughed a few times a day for many years , however when I develop a cough / cold / virus situation I can tell within hours that’s it’s not my normal as it’s more frequent and feels different. Seriously people this is not rocket science.

Cupcake
I agree ‘Persistent cough’ isnt rocket science

I was reading these threads yesterday morning and thinking "isn't it obvious" and then two things happened yesterday which made me realise it wasn't.
7yo DS is well. I'm not aware of him having coughed at all recently. Yesterday morning, he coughed a few times over a two hour period so I was preparing to self isolate. Then I realised he hadn't coughed since. Several hours passed with no coughing but then, in the evening, he coughed a couple of times over half an hour and then that was it. I have realised I have no idea whether my son usually coughs occasionally or not as I don't usually pay any attention because it doesn't matter. My plan is to stay near him all day today, not go out anywhere, actively listen for his coughs and then decide.
I had a horrible cold over February half term and have been coughing ever since. It was definitely a cold not CV. My cough had, finally, been easing over the last few days but then I seemed to cough a bit more again yesterday. Or did I? Was it just self-awareness and fear? Again, I will actively listen to my coughing today but, as I didn't on Weds and Thurs of last week, I don't have an accurate position to compare it to. I usually run on a Sunday morning but, if it is chilly, will spend the couple of hours after that coughing. So now I have the dilemma of whether I run and cough and worry and self isolate or whether I cancel the run so I know it's not running related coughing.
So please don't say it is easy to know as it might not be!

FFS If there’s a couple of hours between a cough it’s NOT Persistent!!!

So .....cough cough caugh..... maybe a few seconds or a few minutes then caugh caugh cough and repeat! Is persistent!

But it is “persistent”, isn’t it? I agree this is extremely confusing.

I think what is meant (and what should have been said if it is) is “a cough that does not go away. If you cough a few times then don’t cough again that is not persistent but a recurrent cough, however infrequent, means you should self isolate”. “Continuous cough” to me suggests that it doesn’t stop at all, but that clearly isn’t the only type of cough where you need to self isolate. Coughing twice an hour every hour - persistent.

I am surprised this hasn’t been clarified given the high stakes. I know from my professional life how important these messages are and I’m amazed they didn’t test the language and refine it so there was no ambiguity at all.

Am waiting for DD to wake up. Last night she was coughing a lot before bed. She says it is because some biscuit crumbs went down the wrong way. If she’s still coughing today she’s going to stay in her room and self-isolate.

But nononoandno do you have medical authority to describe it like that? That's the thing. Until 4pm on Thursday, I had a clear idea in my head of the difference between "persistent", "continuous", "occasional" etc. I still had that certainty yesterday morning. And now I'm not so sure. DS coughed repeatedly over a two hour period. But then didn't. Until he coughed a bit more much later.

They have confused everyone with changing language - it was persistent first, then changed to continuous.

NHS itself defines a persistent cough as one that you’ve had for more than three weeks, so the idea of a ‘new’ persistent cough was confusing to me www.nhs.uk/conditions/cough/

However, I think continuous is more relatable. Just means have you started coughing throughout the day, when you normally wouldn’t. A ‘new’ cough. That seems easy enough to understand to me.

Yes, a “new cough that lasts for more than an hour”, for example, would be helpful. Like cobweb I thought I had a good understanding of what it meant but faced with an “is it or isn’t it?” situation you realise it’s ambiguous.

The fact that it is not just me who is unclear is reassuring. Regardless of if people want to call me stupid or not, in situations like this where this situation applies to the whole nation, the language needs to be accessible to all and clearly at the moment it is far too ambiguous.

I'm glad I'm not the only one confused by the language.
I have developed a cough that only happens at night. I would not class it as persistent or continuous. As I class this to mean you can't stop coughing no matter what you are doing. 0

NHS helpline staff may not know everything but from what I can see from OP's comments and my own experience the advice they are giving seems consistent - continuous means uncontrollable, doesn't stop, is every few secs etc. rather than every so often throughout the day.