Can you tell a dry cough from a wet cough?

Cough is a defensive reflex by which the body also seeks to prevent the intrusion or remove foreign substances already present from the airways. The cause of cough is in most cases a disease such as inflammation of the upper and lower respiratory tract, in children most often of viral origin.

At first it is dry, irritating and after two or three days with the production of mucus, moist. In general, we distinguish two types of cough - moist, with mucus and dry, which tends to change to moist. Unproductive cough is dry, painful and irritating, ie. that repeated coughing stimuli are usually without the effect of coughing. It can be caused by e.g. dust or cigarette smoke, but can also have an allergic or neurotic origin and contribute to a more serious illness. Dry cough occurs at the onset of the disease when the viruses settle in the bronchi and irritate the mucous membranes, usually not lasting more than three days. Subsequently, it tends to turn into a moist cough with the formation of mucus and its coughing.