{"id":27935,"date":"2021-02-16T11:54:00","date_gmt":"2021-02-16T09:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/workcarewellness.co.za\/healthwise\/?p=27935"},"modified":"2021-03-02T08:32:10","modified_gmt":"2021-03-02T06:32:10","slug":"cough","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/workcarewellness.co.za\/healthwise\/cough\/","title":{"rendered":"Cough"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"In this, the time of the Covid-19 pandemic, coughing is a pretty serious thing and it can be scary. But most coughs are not<\/u><\/em><\/strong> caused by coronavirus and so it\u2019s worth knowing a bit more about the OTHER possible causes\u2026<\/p>\n

The most common causes of coughing include (in approximate order with the most common first):<\/p>\n

    \n
  • Colds and \u2018flu<\/li>\n
  • Post-nasal drip<\/li>\n
  • Smoking<\/li>\n
  • Emphysema<\/li>\n
  • Asthma<\/li>\n
  • Bronchitis<\/li>\n
  • Pneumonia<\/li>\n
  • Tuberculosis (TB)<\/li>\n
  • Heart failure<\/li>\n
  • Gastro Oesophageal Reflux Disease (GORD) \u2013 heartburn<\/li>\n
  • Medications (e.g. ACE inhibitors like enalapril, Renitec)<\/li>\n
  • Lung cancer<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    \u2026.and YES, coronavirus can and does cause a cough. In early 2021, Covid-19 is probably the fourth or fifth most common cause of coughing, overall.<\/p>\n

    Your doctor may request tests such as:<\/p>\n

      \n
    • Chest X-ray \u2013 creates images of the heart and lungs<\/li>\n
    • CT scan of chest \u2013 advanced computer-assisted X-ray technique that creates detailed images<\/li>\n
    • Sputum analysis \u2013 any sputum (if present) may be sent to a laboratory for analysis<\/li>\n
    • Lung function tests, where you blow into a machine to measure your lung capacity and function<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      If your cough comes on suddenly, is associated with real shortness of breath, involves \u201cmucky\u201d sputum or blood being coughed up, or if there is also any form of chest pain, we do suggest seeing your doctor soon to rule-out serious medical issues. In addition of course, if you have a cough with a fever and flu like symptoms in these times of pandemic, you may well want to have a Covid-test done.<\/p>\n

      \n

      The cause of a cough is often fairly clear. Whenever the cause of a cough is not clear, however, it is important to investigate further so that any serious causes can be excluded. Covid-19 must also be considered although most \u201ccoughers\u201d will probably test negative (because most coughs are not caused by Covid-19).<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":27936,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50,67,68,37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-coping-with-life","category-coronavirus","category-coronavirus-resource-centre","category-feature-articles"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-31 19:15:48","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/workcarewellness.co.za\/healthwise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/workcarewellness.co.za\/healthwise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/workcarewellness.co.za\/healthwise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/workcarewellness.co.za\/healthwise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/workcarewellness.co.za\/healthwise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27935"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/workcarewellness.co.za\/healthwise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27935\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27937,"href":"https:\/\/workcarewellness.co.za\/healthwise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27935\/revisions\/27937"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/workcarewellness.co.za\/healthwise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/workcarewellness.co.za\/healthwise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/workcarewellness.co.za\/healthwise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/workcarewellness.co.za\/healthwise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}