Cough has been one of the major symptoms of COVID-19. With the arrival of the new coronavirus variant, Omicron, even more of us are coughing. An investigation from Norway, which was published in December last year in the journal euro surveillance, studied a group of people, most of them were vaccinated. The group became infected with Omicron at a Christmas party, and it was revealed that 83 percent of the people had whooping cough.
Omicron seems to replicate rapidly in the bronchi, which are two large tubes that bring air from the trachea to the lungs. A December 2021 study conducted by the LKS Faculty of Medicine at the University of Hong Kong reports that omicrons multiply 70 times faster in the airways than delta and native viruses.
In conversation with Everyday Health, William Checkley, MD, PhD, who is an associate professor in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore, said that a COVID-19 cough is not unique. According to experts, it is similar to cough caused by other viral or bacterial pneumonias. Donna Klitzman, MD, a clinical care physician at Pulmonary Intensive Care Specialists in New Jersey, agreed that patients can’t be diagnosed just by listening to their cough. He said that nowadays the patients coming to the hospitals are usually people who have not been vaccinated. “A painful, dry cough with lower-than-normal oxygen levels (hypoxia) is a sign of trouble,” she said.
How to treat this COVID-19 cough?
Klitzman shared that patients can treat cough while they are recovering from COVID-19 at home. “It can help to elevate yourself while you sleep by slipping a wedge under your pillow,” says Klitzman. He said that cough suppressants – ‘antitussives’ and cough suppressants called codeine taken before bedtime can be very helpful. However, she warned that one should not depend on it.
According to experts, people who are not taking prescription cough medicine can drink lots of herbal teas and take lozenges.
Klitzmann explained that the best way to reduce symptoms of any disease is to treat the underlying disease. So, if someone has mild COVID-19 and is at high risk of becoming seriously ill, they should take antiviral pills and certain monoclonal antibody infusions that can help with treatment – meaning less coughing.
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