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Upper Respiratory Infection - Symptoms

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What were the symptoms of your upper respiratory tract infection?

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What are the symptoms of upper respiratory infection?

Generally, the symptoms of upper respiratory infection result from the toxins released by the pathogens as well as the inflammatory response mounted by the immune system to fight the infection.

Common symptoms of upper respiratory infection generally include:

  • nasal congestion,
  • runny nose (rhinorrhea),
  • nasal discharge (may change from clear to white to green)
  • nasal breathing,
  • sneezing,
  • sore or scratchy throat,
  • painful swallowing (odynophagia),
  • cough (from laryngeal swelling and post nasal drip),
  • malaise, and
  • fever (more common in children).

Other less common symptoms may include foul breath, poor smelling sensation (hyposmia), headache, shortness of breath, sinus pain, itchy and watery eye (conjunctivitis), nausea, vomiting diarrhea, and body aches.

The symptoms of upper respiratory infection usually last between 3-14 days; if symptoms last longer than 14 days, an alternative diagnosis can be considered such as, sinusitis, allergy, pneumonia, or bronchitis.

Bacterial pharyngitis (strep throat due to group A streptococcus) may be considered if symptoms continue to worsen after the first week in the absence of runny nose, cough, or conjunctivitis. Prompt testing and initiation of appropriate antibiotics is important due to the risk of developing rheumatic fever, especially in children.

Epiglottitis is an upper respiratory infection in children that may have a more sudden onset of sore throat, feeling of a lump in the throat, muffled voice, dry cough, very painful swallowing, and drooling.

Upper respiratory infections in the lower part of the upper respiratory tract, such as, laryngotracheitis, are more commonly featured with dry cough and hoarseness or loss of voice. Barking or whooping cough, gagging, rib pain (from severe cough) are other presenting features.

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Comment from: 65-74 Female (Patient) Published: April 15

I went "all natural" and used lots of Vicks VapoRub on my chest at night, gargled with warm salt water, and held a towel over my head with hot water in the sink. It works well to loosen things up. I'm also drinking lots of liquids. I mixed 1 teaspoon of honey with ¼ teaspoon of cinnamon for my cough. I did all this and it still had to run its natural course – about three weeks. All this just made it tolerable without drugs.

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