Heck, we got it in San Diego too. Three of us in the same family, for that matter, are only now beginning to recover - takes 2-4 weeks. It is pretty much a bronchial infection of some sort - “junky” chest, rich, productive cough, malaise, lack of energy - but no fever. And a friend in Chicago just came down with similar symptoms, and he hasn’t been to visit us in 2-3 months. So yeah, I’d say it is widespread.
Very interesting thread. I had a terrible cough in February and March that seemed endless. Didn’t realize that it was so wide spread.
Incidentally, I got some Cipro at the urging of my SO, even though I was pretty sure it was viral, but I guess she wanted me to do something and I was too sick to fight her on it. Long story short, the cough did eventually get better but my gut was left in shambles. Same thing happened with last year’s bronchitis – on a Z-pack. Doc now says that unless I’m seriously ill, no more antibiotics for me (due to the risk of C. diff. or some such scary thing).
We had it here, too - Jim and I both got it. I wasn’t too sick, but I just coughed and coughed. I think we had it before Christmas. We didn’t take any antibiotics, and it cleared up on its own eventually (Jim uses steroids for his asthma, and I took a couple of hits from his inhaler to calm my bronchioles down).
Huh. I had no idea this was a thing. I was sick the entire month of November, plus a bit. Two rounds of antibiotics. Southern California. I had a DTaP vaccine less than 2 years ago, though, so not likely pertussis.
Yes, interesting thread. I caught it a month ago, I’m pretty sure from a co-worker from St. Louis on a business trip. I had it for 3 weeks and had strong, and mostly unproductive coughs. I didn’t see any doc, and just took Robitussin DM for it. Coughing was so strong & frequent that my abs were in pain. Unfortunately I gave it to my wife, but fortunately she only had it for 1 week.
We live in the San Francisco Bay Area, CA.
Got my very own z-pack and benzonatate yesterday at a walk-in clinic here in Flagstaff where we’re camped for the night. This was just an annoying dry cough over the past week, but after taking those meds, it erupted into a coughing-till-you-can’t-breathe jag every time I rolled over. Is that because the meds are trying to expel the evil? Fuck me, I didn’t want to spend this month on the road hacking up my lungs.
I guess I’ll be the first one checking in from overseas. I’m in northern Bangkok since last October and have had this damned cough for two months. Started with what I thought was a cold. Headache, fever and general malaise. After a week it hadn’t gotten any better so I went to a clinic and the lovely transgender doctor gave me a hypo in the ass and sent me home with four bags of pills:
Bisolvon
Diclofenac
Augmentin
Actifed
To my surprise, I was feeling almost normal a few hours later (aside from the sore glute). The only thing I couldn’t get rid of was the cough. It was bringing up a good helping of phlegm (normal color, no apparent infection) so I tolerated it. Here it is two months later and only in the last few days has the cough gone from every 10 minutes to once every hour or two. maybe in another week or two it will be gone altogether.
Never had anything like that before.
/edit: Cost for clinic visit: $15.
Not only a winter/spring thing. We’re just into Autumn now in the southern hemisphere and I’ve had a cough for the past ? four months. It feels like forever. I’ve been on Rulide, Bactrim and Erythromycin. I was pretty sick at the start and am OK now except for the rotten cough which just won’t go away.
I, too, have never had a cough last this long before.
Samclem, I’m afraid it’s mostly anecdotal, but got “the cough” here in Texas in March, and I almost never get sick. The number of people I knew who had the same thing, and it was disconcerting.
My GP said it was probably attributable to high pollen count of some plant. Not satisfied, I searched the crap out of Medline, Pubmed etc. and found nothing that explained the weird nature of this.
But, based on anecdotal evidence including widespread geographical incidence led me to believe it was not pollen-based. Incidentally, I got a Pertussis booster too last year.