It is difficult to distinguish from a cough, not that a viral cold is less severe than a bacterial cough, but some viral infections, such as adenovirus and respiratory syncytial virus infections, are even more severe than bacterial ones.
Is it possible to distinguish from sputum? It is not very easy to distinguish, because at the beginning, the sputum may be clear or white, and as the disease progresses, it becomes yellowish-green, and then, as it gets better, it turns clear or white again, and it gets better. If I have to say that there is a little difference, it is that bacterial yellow-green sputum lasts a little longer.
This is so because, yellow-green is the color of neutrophils and enzymes in the cells. When a viral infection occurs, neutrophils also proliferate and run to the inflammation site, and that's when yellow-green sputum is produced. But when the neutrophils arrive, they look at the virus and can't handle it, then they don't come later, so they quickly turn to white sputum, but when bacteria, they come in a steady stream, causing the yellow-green sputum to take longer.
So no distinction? Haha, that's not our style, you can distinguish generally by the combination of symptoms, note that oh, not 100% accurate.
If the fever is combined with a viral cold, most of the fever will start to improve after 2-3 days, such as the daily maximum temperature decreases, or the number of fever decreases every day, but if it is a bacterial infection, the fever will not get better so quickly, and if antibiotics are not given, the fever may gradually worsen.
In addition, in addition to fever, blood tests have some reference significance. After 2-3 days of fever, you can test the blood tests, by looking at the white blood cells, neutrophils, C-reactive protein, you can roughly assess the next, haha, this is also a rough assessment, not 100% accurate.
How about if you want to be clear? You can perform nasopharyngeal swabs, throat secretions, sputum culture, these tests can clarify what the pathogen is, so it is very accurate. However, there is a disadvantage that the culture is slow and is not usually checked except when the infection is severe.
The nasopharyngeal swab is faster, with results coming out in half an hour, but the number of pathogens that can be detected is relatively small. So, if you think your child looks like adenovirus or respiratory syncytial virus or Mycoplasma pneumoniae, it's worthwhile to check for clarity to determine whether or not to use antibiotics and which antibiotics to use.
