Cough won’t go away

[Cornflower65]

Are people still dealing with this cough that seems to stick around? DD 15 caught it nearly 5 weeks ago and I’ve had it 4 weeks. I went to doctor at about 3 weeks as couldn’t sleep but told it was just viral and chest clear - though it’s a productive cough. We’ve both still got it. It’s ok til you have a coughing fit but then they can be quite bad, I still sound like a smoker. Is this normal? Thanks

Could it be Whooping Cough?

They didn't test for whooping cough or covid going around? You would think with so many whooping cough cases in the uk, the priority for a doctor would be to rule out whooping cough & covid. What does viral mean? In medicine viral can be anything: hepatitis, HIV, cold, covid, pneumonia, RSV, flu to list a few. Isn't it important to find out which virus is 'viral'? How can 'viral' be used as a real diagnosis? Will this appear on your medical file: 'viral'?

My understanding is if it's viral, they can't prescribe any antibiotics or anything, so it doesn't particularly matter exactly what virus it is. It would be expensive to be sending off tests to labs for every viral cough. I suspect they'd only do that if you were so bad you had been hospitalised.

There is a bad virus doing the rounds, my ds took 3 weeks to get rid of it and he seldom gets colds.

With the weather is now changing - warmer, hopefully drier and more sun, people will fend it off sooner. But it has been difficult.

@ForRoseExpert Viral means ABs won't work so you need to recover the old fashioned way. Lots of fluids, keep warm, sleep, no stress, vitamin C, and time.

I had it and it turned to pneumonia…long story of not being able to get antibiotics 3 mths later

Thanks all. It’s getting tedious - my DD who caught it nearly 6 weeks ago and had a lingering cough has suddenly got worse and has a temperature and coughing phlegm and says daggers in throat. Could it be the same thing or likely to be a new virus?

By the same thing I mean could it have turned into a bacterial infection so long after initial infection?

A viral cough, after 2020: the first thing any doctor would do should be to rule covid out, when covid can trigger so many other conditions, infections, lower the immunity etc. How can a test be too expensive during a covid & whooping cough pandemic in a country without enough doctors, appointments, specialists. Expensive is when wrong diagnosis triggers wrong treatment, when wrong treatment causes unnecessary sick days off, or more school days off than when the correct diagnosis would be given, especially when it's contagious: how would they protect the public from infectious diseases when no tests are done. Covid is a norifiable disease, meaning it needs to be tested and the public health notified. Why would the price of one test be too expensive considering all the consequences described before? Medicine is there with a purpose, if all they need is to guess, anyone can do this, without a medical qualification. Tests are essential especially when the health care system in in crisis, because the only solution for a health care system is in crisis is prevention- the cheapest solution, impossible without a test