What is cough?

Also known as: acute cough, chronic cough.

Cough is an extremely common medical symptom that can accompany a wide variety of conditions. Cough is a reflex that protects your child’s breathing passages (airways-bronchi) by removing mucus (and/or other foreign material), irritating substances and infections by the forceful expulsion of air from the lungs. It can be mild to severe, last a short time (acute cough lasts less than 2-3 weeks), be episodic or last a long time (chronic cough lasts more than 4 weeks).

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Reviewed by: Richmond Darko, MD

This page was last updated on: 1/29/2019 3:21:13 PM