stLouISTDoctor Provides Tips For Anyone Who Is Hit With Bronchiolitis
You’ve likely heard of bronchitis, an illness that impacts the larger lung airways and leaves you feeling short of breath and just generally yucky. This winter, here’s another respiratory illness with “bronch” in the name to be aware of, especially if you have young kids: bronchiolitis. It’s an ailment that Awad Alyami, MD , an OSF HealthCare pediatrician, sees often this time of year. The basics Dr. Alyami says bronchiolitis is an infection of the bronchioles, or the small airways that branch out in the lungs. “When they become infected, there is a lot of mucus. It makes it harder to breathe,” Dr. Alyami explains. Other symptoms include fever, runny nose, cough and dehydration. Bronchiolitis is “easily spread,” Dr. Alyami says, through respiratory droplets, like when you cough. The illness is most common in children, especially kids under two. Other high-risk groups include babies born prematurely, with chronic lung disease,
