Sometimes, you may find yourself in public spaces and then suddenly, someone starts coughing persistently close to you; very often, two reactions may occur:
- Someone may get angry and ask the person to stop coughing.
- Another may look on with sympathy and not react at all.
There’s a problem with these two possible reactions. A third reaction which I will share, details the best possible way to go about it in such awkward and potentially harmful situation.
The first possible reaction is completely wrong as it denotes lack of sympathy for a fellow who seems unwell. On top of that, asking someone who coughs persistently to stop doing so only shows you are ignorant of the fact that some coughing may be involuntary. Unless you believe it is really what is termed “the Ayarega” type of cough, (Ayaricough).
Being close to a person coughing and not say or do anything may be a compassionate thing to do but that could certainly put you at risk of contracting airborne diseases such as lung TB.
Why You Must Not Ignore Close Proximity Cough in a Car or Any Other Public Space
There are two main types of coughing; dry cough (no mucus/phlegm produced) and productive cough.
Productive coughing is a wet one where mucus is produced deep down in the throat and lungs. This body fluid from the lung is often as a result of infection and potentially contains infectious elements. That’s why a doctor could ask a person to visit the hospital with saliva or mucus collected in a container.
When someone coughs, you may not see it with your naked eyes, however, great amount of fluid, possibly containing disease elements like TB bacteria splash out in droplet form; very fresh from the lung-that makes it most infectious to the person next to him/her. This is how some people end up contracting diseases like TB in our communities.
What To Do When Close to a Person Who Coughs
First of all, do not be angry with the person and the reason is indicated earlier. This is what I do: wait for few minutes if the coughing will cease. If it doesn’t, I ask the person politely if he or she has face mask, handkerchief or tissue. The person is then encouraged to cover the mouth while coughing to limit the spread of fluid droplet around. If the person does not have it and you do, respectfully offer him or her one. You may cover your own nose or face to reduce exposure.
There are people, no matter how nice you approach them in such situation, they would still get offended. If they continue to cough incessantly within your reach, if you can, avoid that space completely.
It’s easy to cure TB but it remains one of the deadliest diseases because of its ability to stay quiet in the body for long time (latent TB) and then bounces back to damage lung tissues when the victim gets into some form of compromised immune status. That’s why one of the cardinal signs is coughing out blood.
TB can affect other parts of the body, (extrapulmonary TB) and not only the lungs.
In substance, as you find yourself in public spaces, you have no idea what others are walking about with in terms of health issues and so you must do all you can to limit exposure to some of these things.
If you happen to be the one with such health challenges like coughing, do well to protect others by using facemask or other improvised items such as handkerchief.
There are people who have the awful habit of coughing wildly in front of others; they spit anyhow in public. Such behavior especially spitting around could result in arrest in some countries. But whatever it is, do not entertain without doing anything if someone coughs persistently within your reach; you may get infected with TB.
That’s amazing. I have never thought of it that way . Thanks for sharing 🙏