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HEALTH COUGHS AND COLDS 46
RET AIL PHARMA C Y • MA Y 2020
who’ve been overseas recently,”
she said.
Pharmacists, she adds, should
diligently keep abreast of ever-evolving
information related to the virus.
“Obviously, the world is panicking at
the moment about coronavirus, and
fear arises whenever someone coughs
or sneezes,” Dr Moles said. “For the
most part, symptoms could be similar
to a cold or flu early on, so history is
important. If people are concerned,
they should call their GP ahead and
arrange for testing.”
She underscores that, for the most
part, pharmacists will be able to quickly
ascertain if someone is not simply
suffering from a common cold.
“Flu causes someone to feel very sick,
with fever, chills, aches and pains and
an inability to get out of bed,” she said.
“The common cold would rarely do that
to someone. A cold is annoying but
never that severe.”
She says the common cold is
“very common”, with adults usually
having two to three colds a year that
span about seven to 10 days.
Pharmacists, she adds, can emphasise
to their patients that coughs and colds
“can’t necessarily be avoided”, no matter
how good their personal hygiene is,
or how many supplements and immune
boosters they take, or how much healthy
food they consume.
This is because there are more than
100 known cold viruses with new strains
evolving every year, Dr Moles says.
“Viruses, which are everywhere, are
quite clever,” she said, “because they
change a lot and we can’t keep up with
them. That’s why we don’t have a cure
for the common cold.
“There are also a lot of myths
abounding that if a person isn’t warmly
dressed enough and goes out in the
rain, they’ll catch a cold. Actually,
it’s really just about being exposed to
a virus, which is exacerbated by poor
hygiene in the form of people with the
virus touching things that other people
then touch and get infected.”
Dr Moles says a person’s immune
system should combat cold viruses most
of the time, but sometimes they’ll “get a
dose of a viral load that results in a cold”.
How can people lessen the chances
of getting coughs and colds?
Pharmacists should be constantly
advising people to maintain healthy
habits, Dr Moles says, as this will keep
their immune system “strong”.
“It’s all about eating healthy foods,
exercising and being meticulous when
it comes to hand hygiene,” she said.
She cautions, though, that it
doesn’t help if people become too
“germophobic”, because doses of germs
and viruses are necessary to build up
the immune system.
“If a person never exposes themselves
to pathogens out there, they’ll not be able
to cope in a balanced way when they do.”
When is a cough associated with
a cardiovascular condition?
Coughs can be associated with
cardiovascular conditions as a result
of a back-up of fluid in the lungs,
Dr Moles says.
“This is because, if a patient’s heart
isn’t pumping properly, the blood that
has gone to the lungs to get oxygen is
having trouble returning to the heart to
be pumped around the rest of the body,”
she said. “The lack of good pumping
causes fluid to back up in the lungs,
which causes a ‘gurgly’ cough that
usually sounds different to the cough
associated with a cold.”
She also cites the respiratory cough
associated with asthma.
“So, it’s clear that pharmacists have
to do some good questioning around
a patient’s cough in terms of when
it occurs, what it sounds like, and
whether the patient has shortness
of breath,” Dr Moles said, adding
that cardiovascular coughs are often
associated with shortness of breath.
Different causes for dry and
chesty coughs
Dr Moles says a chesty cough is the result
of the presence of mucus in the lungs.
“Nearly everyone will start a cold with
a bit of a sore throat, then symptoms
move to the nose, which results in
mucus that then moves to the chest,”
she said. “This means that often patients
are most likely to have a chesty cough
at first. As the mucus clears through
coughing, they may end up with a bit of
irritation in the throat, which makes the
cough drier.
“So, most of the time, someone with a
cold will first have a ‘chestier’ cough that
morphs into a dry cough towards the
end of the cold.”
She emphasises that if a patient has a
dry cough, it’s up to the pharmacist to
work out whether it’s asthma related or
something similar.
How can pharmacists help patients
avoid negative drug interactions?
Pharmacists can do much to avoid
negative drug interactions in patients
“by asking the right questions”,
Dr Moles says.
“A pharmacist wouldn’t treat a patient
with high blood pressure with a product
containing pseudoephedrine, which
would dry up their nose,” she said.
“So, it’s all about getting a full history
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“Flu causes someone to
feel very sick, with fever,
chills, aches and pains
and an inability to get
out of bed. The common
cold would rarely do that
to someone.”