Table of ContentsView AllTable of ContentsWhen It’s ContagiousHow It SpreadsFor How LongWhen It’s Not ContagiousProtecting OthersReducing Your RiskWhen to Seek Care
Table of ContentsView All
View All
Table of Contents
When It’s Contagious
How It Spreads
For How Long
When It’s Not Contagious
Protecting Others
Reducing Your Risk
When to Seek Care
Bronchitis may be contagious depending on what’s causing it. It can be contagious for several days to a week or more when the cause is bacterial or viral. Infected saliva, respiratory droplets from a cough or sneeze, and contaminated surfaces can pass on an acute case of bronchitis.
Verywell / Mira Norian
When Is Bronchitis Contagious?
Whether or not bronchitis is contagious depends on the underlying cause. When someone is infected with either viral or bacterial acute bronchitis, they are contagious and can pass the infection to others.
There are two maintypes of bronchitis:
Cases of chronic bronchitis are not likely to be contagious.
How to Tell if Your Bronchitis Is Viral or Bacterial
How Is It Spread?
If you touch a surface an infected person has touched and then touch your face, the virus or bacteria can cause an infection.
You get bronchitis when thebronchi—the tubes that lead from your mouth to your lungs—swell up and start producing protective mucus that triggers coughing.
5 Symptoms of BronchitisSymptoms of bronchitisinclude:A cough that keeps you up at nightA sore chest from coughingA sore throat from coughingLingering tiredness, headaches, and body achesA low-grade fever
5 Symptoms of Bronchitis
Symptoms of bronchitisinclude:A cough that keeps you up at nightA sore chest from coughingA sore throat from coughingLingering tiredness, headaches, and body achesA low-grade fever
Symptoms of bronchitisinclude:
How Long Is It Contagious?
The types of viruses and bacteria that cause bronchitis will usually have been in your system from four to six days before you start feeling cold symptoms.
Bronchitis, especially if it’s viral, can be contagious from just hours after you’ve been exposed and long before you develop symptoms. Because of this, there’s a good number of days between when you’re exposed to when you start feeling sick, and you can pass the infection on during that time.
Once you start feeling sick, you’ll feel like you have a cold or flu that lasts a few days to up to 10. Other symptoms may resolve, but you can develop a lingering cough.
You’ll becontagious through the cold or flu sickness phase. If viral bronchitis develops, you will likely be contagious for a few days to a week or longer.
Antibiotics are not generally recommended for viral or bacterial bronchitis.However, in the cases where they are given appropriately, you should no longer be contagious about 24 hours after you start taking them.
Bacterial bronchitiscan turn into bacterial pneumonia. The bacteria that cause bacterial bronchitis are usually the same ones that cause pneumonia:Streptococcus pneumoniaeandStaphylococcus aureus.
When Is Bronchitis Not Contagious?
Chronic bronchitis is not something that resolves in a few days. These cases are not due to infections that can be passed from one person to the next.
Rather, they are due to exposures—especially cigarette smoke—that promote and sustain long-term inflammation of the airways.
Having another lung disease makes you more likely to develop chronic bronchitis. Some examples include:
What to Do if You’re Contagious
If you’re sick and worried about spreading your infection, the best advice is to stay away from other people and limit the extent to which your germs may spread.
To do this:
How to Reduce Your Risk
To avoid catching contagious bronchitis, stay away from sick people.
If you have to be around people and who might have contagious bronchitis:
If you’re older, getting your annual flu shot and considering a pneumonia vaccine can also protect you from developing bronchitis and experiencing complications should you get it.
When to See a Healthcare Provider
Most of the time, bronchitis should resolve on its own with time and rest. Get in touch with your healthcare provider if you experience the following:
Summary
Whether or not bronchitis is contagious depends on what type you have. Both viral and bacterial bronchitis are contagious for several days to a week or more, while chronic bronchitis does not spread from person to person.
There are simple steps you can take to avoid catching and spreading bronchitis. It’s important to see a healthcare provider if you show serious symptoms or if any symptoms are not improving after several weeks.
8 SourcesVerywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Kinkade S, Long NA.Acute bronchitis.Am Fam Physician. 2016;94(7):560-5.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.How Infections Spread.Oppenlander KE, Chung AA, Clabaugh D.Respiratory Syncytial Virus Bronchiolitis: Rapid Evidence Review.Am Fam Physician. 2023;108(1):52-57.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Chest Cold (Acute Bronchitis).Park JY, Park S, Lee SH, Lee MG, Park YB, et al.Microorganisms causing community-acquired acute bronchitis: the role of bacterial infection.PLOS ONE2016;11(10):e0165553. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0165553Johns Hopkins Medicine.Chronic Bronchitis.MedlinePlus.Acute Bronchitis.American Academy of Family Physicians.Acute Bronchitis—Persistent Cough.Additional ReadingAmerican Lung Association.Learn About Bronchitis (Acute).
8 Sources
Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Kinkade S, Long NA.Acute bronchitis.Am Fam Physician. 2016;94(7):560-5.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.How Infections Spread.Oppenlander KE, Chung AA, Clabaugh D.Respiratory Syncytial Virus Bronchiolitis: Rapid Evidence Review.Am Fam Physician. 2023;108(1):52-57.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Chest Cold (Acute Bronchitis).Park JY, Park S, Lee SH, Lee MG, Park YB, et al.Microorganisms causing community-acquired acute bronchitis: the role of bacterial infection.PLOS ONE2016;11(10):e0165553. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0165553Johns Hopkins Medicine.Chronic Bronchitis.MedlinePlus.Acute Bronchitis.American Academy of Family Physicians.Acute Bronchitis—Persistent Cough.Additional ReadingAmerican Lung Association.Learn About Bronchitis (Acute).
Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
Kinkade S, Long NA.Acute bronchitis.Am Fam Physician. 2016;94(7):560-5.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.How Infections Spread.Oppenlander KE, Chung AA, Clabaugh D.Respiratory Syncytial Virus Bronchiolitis: Rapid Evidence Review.Am Fam Physician. 2023;108(1):52-57.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Chest Cold (Acute Bronchitis).Park JY, Park S, Lee SH, Lee MG, Park YB, et al.Microorganisms causing community-acquired acute bronchitis: the role of bacterial infection.PLOS ONE2016;11(10):e0165553. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0165553Johns Hopkins Medicine.Chronic Bronchitis.MedlinePlus.Acute Bronchitis.American Academy of Family Physicians.Acute Bronchitis—Persistent Cough.
Kinkade S, Long NA.Acute bronchitis.Am Fam Physician. 2016;94(7):560-5.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.How Infections Spread.
Oppenlander KE, Chung AA, Clabaugh D.Respiratory Syncytial Virus Bronchiolitis: Rapid Evidence Review.Am Fam Physician. 2023;108(1):52-57.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Chest Cold (Acute Bronchitis).
Park JY, Park S, Lee SH, Lee MG, Park YB, et al.Microorganisms causing community-acquired acute bronchitis: the role of bacterial infection.PLOS ONE2016;11(10):e0165553. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0165553
Johns Hopkins Medicine.Chronic Bronchitis.
MedlinePlus.Acute Bronchitis.
American Academy of Family Physicians.Acute Bronchitis—Persistent Cough.
American Lung Association.Learn About Bronchitis (Acute).
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