lungs – Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD, is a respiratory disease that affects 3 to 4 million French people
COPD. If these four letters don’t mean anything to you, you are one of the two thirds of French people* who have never heard of this disease. However, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which is the international day this Thursday, affects 3 to 4 million people in France, 17,000 of whom die each year, according to Inserm. Although treatment can slow the progression of this respiratory pathology, COPD remains, in the current state of research, incurable. Hence the interest in recognizing the first signs.
Recurrent shortness of breath, cough and bronchitis
Persistent cough, mucous sputum, shortness of breath, recurring bronchitis… The symptoms of COPD can go unnoticed, often confused with those of benign illnesses, or minimized. How then can we recognize this disease? “Patients experience these symptoms permanently but experience periods of exacerbation, particularly in winter,” explains pulmonology professor Pascal Chanez.
For Yves Martinet, professor emeritus of pulmonology and president of the National Committee against Smoking, it is above all a question of duration. “A cough whose episodes last three consecutive months for more than two years should alert you. » If it is normal to cough when you have (…) Read more on 20minutes
Also read:
Bronchiolitis: From now on, to protect your child, you can vaccinate the mother or immunize the baby. What to choose?
“It’s morally and physically exhausting”: Whooping cough is also on the rise among adults
Bronchiolitis: What do we know about Beyfortus, this preventive treatment intended for infants?
Health
