Respiratory tract infection

infectious diseases involving the lower or upper respiratory tract.^[1] An infection of this type usually is further classified as an upper respiratory tract infection (URI or URTI) or a lower respiratory tract infection (LRI or LRTI). Lower respiratory infections, such as pneumonia, tend to be far more severe than upper respiratory infections, such as the common cold

upper respiratory tract is considered the airway above the glottis or vocal cords; sometimes, it is taken as the tract above the cricoid cartilage. This part of the tract includes the nose, sinuses, pharynx, and larynx.^[2]

sneezing.^[4][5]

bronchial tubes, bronchioles, and the lungs.^[6]

H5N1 tend to bind to receptors deep in the lungs.^[9]

urine testing.^[11] The relative risk reduction of chest x-ray utilization in children screened with rapid viral testing is 77% compared with controls.^[11] In 2013 researchers developed a breath tester that can promptly diagnose lung infections.^[12][13]

antiviral agents.^[17][18]

JAMA found that narrow-spectrum antibiotics, such as amoxicillin, are just as effective as broad-spectrum alternatives for treating acute respiratory tract infections in children, but have a lower risk of side effects.^[22]

N95 filtering facepiece respirators measured in vitro, insufficient clinical evidence has been published to determine whether standard surgical masks and N95 filtering facepiece respirators are equivalent to preventing respiratory infections in healthcare workers.^[23]

prophylactically can prevent infection and improve adults' overall mortality in the ICU for adult patients receiving mechanical ventilation for at least 48 hours, and topical antibiotic prophylaxis probably reduces respiratory infections but not mortality.^[24] However, the combination of treatments cannot rule out the relevant contribution in the systemic component of the observed reduction of mortality.^[24] There is no sufficient evidence to recommend that antibiotics be used to prevent complications from an RTI of unknown cause in children under the age of 5 years old.^[25] High-quality clinical research in the form of randomized controlled trials assessed the effectiveness of Vitamin D,^[26] another review of poorer quality RCTs addressed the effectiveness of immunostimulants for preventing respiratory tract infections.^[27] Despite some uncertainty due to small study sizes, there is some evidence that exercise may reduce severity of symptoms but had no impact on number of episodes or number of symptom days per episode.^[28]

relative humidity; ideal humidity for indoor spaces is between 40 and 60%. Therefore, relative humidity in this range can help lessen the risk of aerosol transmission.^[29]

relative humidity and temperature. Temperate climate winters have lower relative humidity, which is known to increase the transmission of influenza.^[29]

Human orthopneumovirus (RSV), and human coronaviruses are more prevalent in the winter. Human bocavirus and Human metapneumovirus occur year-round, rhinoviruses (which cause the common cold) occur mostly in the spring and fall, and human parainfluenza viruses have variable peaks depending on the specific strain. Enteroviruses, with the exception of rhinoviruses, tend to peak in the summer.^[29]