6 months treatment for a cough....

[Steve.r]

My friend's son was taken by his mother to the doctor because he had a cough, the sort of thing that is not a constant/frequent but happens after the child has been swimming for example.
Now I have heard of this before as my wife's niece was prescribed the same treatment for a cough. Both children are physically active running dancing and happy, so I don't understand this 6 months treatment.
My friend had an X-ray done on his son's chest which the doctor used to determine that the treatment was necessary, but when asked exactly the problem he could not describe an actual name for the problem or what he could see in the X-ray.

Dr Alan, have you heard of this before? Or anyone else know why 6 months treatment is required? I don't believe such a long treatment is necessary and the treating doctors are just in it for the money they can make from selling the medicine.

Thanks

[Steve.r]

Further reading the internets comes up with TB treatment, but in a child of 3 .....

[grahamw48]

First thing that came into my mind when I read '6 months' was TB.

In the early days of my relationship with her mother, my stepdaughter (then living in deepest province) had a persistent cough which was diagnosed by the local doctor as 'suspected TB'. 6 months medication given. She would have been between two years and three years of age.

I'm not a doctor though... but always aware of such a possibility because my own mother contracted TB of the lungs when we were living in Malaya back in the 1950s and spent almost a year in hospital.

Us kids were closely monitored from then on, but in the end were unaffected.

[raynaputi]

My brother also had this 6 months treatment in the past, suspected TB as well. Although he was already an adult then and got it from smoking.

[Steve.r]

Thanks for the replies guys. It just seems to me that even without proper diagnosis or investigation t.b. and huge treatment plans are the first thing a doctor prescribes... needed or not!!

[Michael Parnham]

When I was about 10years old our class at school went on a school trip to Whitley Bay and in the mid afternoon of our day out my left ankle swelled up, anyway to cut a long story short by next morning I was in our local Hospital under observation suspected of rheumatic fever. After two weeks I was transferred to a Hospital in Sheffield that treated children for heart conditions due to rheumatic illnesses, after two weeks and lots of tests it was discovered that my problem was Tuberculosis on my left lung and after two years and two Streptomycin injections and 22 Isoniazid tablets twice a day for two years I was sent home cured completely and was one of the earliest in the UK to be completely cured

[Doc Alan]

I have just returned from visiting the University of Malaya and the Philippines, so have been unable to respond to this thread until now.


TB is certainly possible in children, even if they have been vaccinated, especially if they live in a community where people have active TB - worldwide at least half a million children become ill with TB and thousands may die from this infection if not treated for long enough with appropriate combination of antibiotics.


However, the ONLY person who can make the likely diagnosis in this case is their family doctor. Full clinical assessment - including symptoms, signs, and other tests - is needed in addition to chest X-Ray. There are many causes of cough ( many not serious, particularly if not prolonged ) in addition to TB, and other features may suggest alternative diagnoses perhaps also requiring long term treatment.


The primary purpose of doctors is to make people well - they also need to communicate clearly with their patients ( and in this case, the parents ) what is the likely diagnosis and treatment. It’s vital that your friend insists on a full explanation, free of medical jargon, from the doctor who is paid to provide this, or he should change his doctor.

[grahamw48]

Good advice. Thanks.

[Steve.r]

Thanks Alan