Publisher's Synopsis
Bronchitis is irritation and inflammation of the airways that bring air in and out of your lungs. Acute bronchitis and chronic bronchitis have similar symptoms, including a dry cough, a productive cough, and shortness of breath, but they are different illnesses that last for different lengths of time.
Acute bronchitis is a relatively short-term illness that usually results from a viral infection and does not require antibiotics.1 If you get diagnosed with acute bronchitis, you can expect to recover in a period of days to weeks. In contrast, chronic bronchitis is a lifelong, serious illness.
If you have chronic bronchitis, you may also wonder if you have emphysema, which affects the lungs, not the bronchi. While emphysema and chronic bronchitis can occur at the same time, there are differences between emphysema and bronchitis.
