Talk:Upper respiratory tract infection

Reason: Redirect Common Cold
Common cold page is much more expanded.

This page includes several errors:

Infective agents do not incude bacteria or fungi.

Antibiotics are not recommended for common cold upper respiratory infections in patients with COPD; they might be used in lower respiratory tract infections - bronchitis or pneumonia.

Moved the lecture link to Common Cold not understood why they dont just say...you have a cold drink something warm and have some vitamins i dont know but ohwell

The Flu and Cold link is in the MedlinePlus link.

Petersam 05:11, 12 Aug 2004 (UTC)

I don't quite agree - the terminology is not the same - the common cold ==/== to an Upper respiratory tract infection though the common cold is a type of URTI. URTIs would include things like pharyngitis, bronchitis, sinusitis, rhinitis, even otitis media - which are certainly not part of the common cold. If this article contains errors and the common cold page is more expanded, the correct thing would be to expand this page and correct errors here. Reverting redirect. Alex.tan 09:01, 12 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Nasal infection
Why is it that sometimes when you have this common cold that everything, including the air, smells strange? Graham P. 3:12, 29 March 2005 (UTC)

It because when you get this, your sensoric organ also get affected Pinto Sjafri 14:33, 1 August 2006 (UTC)

Incorrect information
"Recent studies show that up to 98% of all cases are viral in nature." ... "Although viruses are the most likely cause of URIs and do not respond to antibiotic treatment, antibiotics continue to be widely prescribed for this illness. Judicious use of antibiotics can reduce unnecessary adverse effects of antibiotics as well as out-of-pocket costs to the patient. But more importantly, decreased antibiotic usage will prevent development of drug resistant bacteria..."

This is, at best, [b]extremely[/b] misleading. Yes, viruses are most often the underlying initial cause for the buildup of fluids; however, the terms "sinus infection" or "upper respiratory infection" often refer to the *secondary* infection, which is almost always bacterial in nature.

If you ever have gotten sick and blown your nose or coughed up something and it's been yellow or green (usually with an unpleasant smell/taste), that's a bacterial sinus/UR infection.

They're not at all rare--in fact, virtually every single time I've ever gotten a cold (or the flu) I wind up with a secondary bacterial sinus infection. Most people do, I think (why else would most people associate snot with the color green? "Healthy snot" and even "virus-only-infected snot" is clear or white), but most are able to fight it off on their own... unfortunately, not me. For me, it takes 1-3 months to clear up on its own--with antibiotics, it takes 1-2 weeks.

Now, before the WP:NOR trolls beat me to death:

The source used to support the anti-antibiotic claims ([1]) actually refers to laryngitis only. Laryngitis != Upper Respiratory Infection. Laryngitis is merely one very specific aspect of upper respiratory infections. It is not present in all respiratory infections (it's happened only a couple times to me, and I get a sinus infection no less than twice a year), nor is an infection required for the larynx to become inflamed (e.g., severe allergic reactions.) Thus, the conclusions of a laryngitis-specific study cannot be used to support statements applicable to upper respiratory infections as a whole.

Now let us examine [2]. It says:

"Use of antibiotics (regardless of the type) reduced the risk of patient deaths by 77% and the risk of the patient not responding to medical intervention by 53%. In addition, the chances of sputum remaining coloured (green-yellow) were reduced by 44%."

Since antibiotics don't affect viruses, this implies that either people with COPD are MUCH more vulnerable to bacterial infections or the [b]uncited[/b] statement "...are caused by bacteria in less than 2% of all cases" is inaccurate.

In short, the sources don't back up the assertions that 98% (or even "most") sinus infections are completely viral in nature and thus completely unresponsive to antibiotics. I am removing the uncited (and in fact possibly contradictory) statements.

As an aside, I am completely sympathetic to the plight of drug resistance. A lot of people do think that their cold/flu-induced fever/malaise/whatever will get better after antibiotics, and prescribing antibiotics for these things (when they're clearly viral in nature) must stop. However, that doesn't mean we need to start spreading misinformation about upper respiratory infections. Most people who're coughing up green crap do indeed have a speedier recovery if given antibiotics. I don't have a source handy for that, but I don't need one in order to remove unsourced statements. --Lode Runner 16:46, 13 June 2007 (UTC)
 * The section could use a rewrite, btw. I have simply removed the offending statements (feel free to add them again, if you really do have the proper sources to back it up, but I don't think you'll find such sources because I'm pretty sure it isn't true), but I wanted to leave in the bits about drug resistance. --Lode Runner 16:51, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

Incidence of Acute URI in the U.S.: One Billion??!! (raises pinky to corner of pursed lips)
Um, let's see... That's four infections per year for every man, woman, and child in the US (including all those that died or were born throughout the year). I don't think that needs a citation--I think it needs to be deleted. Whaddya say?146.23.4.23 (talk) 19:47, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

Clearly 24.160.241.39 (talk) 19:49, 25 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Yes and children get even more, like 8 per year. Doc James  (talk · contribs · email) 19:02, 1 December 2018 (UTC)

Reviews

 * Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 11:50, 12 October 2010 (UTC)

Acute tracheitis as URTI
Trachea is usually classified as part of lower respiratory tract. But according to the ICD-10 classification acute tracheitis is classified as upper respiratory tract infection and some books classify tracheitis the same way. Moreover some American Family Phisician journal articles added acute bronchitis to UTRI : "Upper respiratory tract infection involves inflammation of the respiratory mucosa from the nose to the lower respiratory tree, not including the alveoli. In addition to malaise, it causes localized symptoms that constitute several overlapping syndromes: sore throat (pharyngitis), rhinorrhea (common cold), facial fullness and pain (sinusitis), and cough (bronchitis)."

Wikipedia definition must include information that some literature includes tracheitis to URTI. --D6194c-1cc (talk) 17:22, 9 May 2021 (UTC).

Acute vs chronic URI
Upper respiratory tract infections are used in context of acute infection. I didn't find any information about classification of upper respiratory infections as chronic. ICD-10 has only ″Acute upper respiratory infections″ section and chronic diseases of upper respiratory tract are under ″Other diseases of upper respiratory tract (J30-J39) ″ section. I'm not a medic but as I think host defenses plays major role in chronic infections so underlying medical conditions could be considered as part of a disease. Naming a disease as chronic URI is less favorable for grouping disease, it has no sense. I found definitions of upper respiratory tract infection only as acute infection, for example : "“URTI” is therefore a nonspecific term used to describe acute infections involving the upper respiratory tract (nose, paranasal sinuses, ear, pharynx, and larynx)."

I think we need to specify that the term is used to describe acute infections and usually is not used to describe chronic infections. Can somebody suggest any counterarguments? --D6194c-1cc (talk) 15:10, 10 May 2021 (UTC)
 * I wrote this mainly in context of icd-10 classification from wikidata (displayed in the bottom of page). --D6194c-1cc (talk) 15:25, 10 May 2021 (UTC)