A two-year-old was diagnosed with croup — a viral infection of the upper airway — after his family noticed that his voice had turned hoarse and he had a barking cough, which his doctor said are characteristic symptoms of the infection.
The symptoms and other signs of croup are the results of swelling around the larynx and trachea, Taipei Shu-tien Clinic pediatrician Tai Chi-shan (戴季珊) said.
When air travels through the narrowed airway, it produces a loud and hoarse sound as the person inhales or exhales, Tai said.
Croup often worsens or develops at night and could even be fatal if the symptoms are severe, she said.
It is a common disease among children aged six months to three years old, especially during seasonal changes.
The infection is less common among older children, she said, adding that boys are slightly more susceptible to it than girls.
Many parents mistake croup for asthma, but they are completely different. Croup features a characteristic barking cough due to an infected upper airway, where a swollen throat and tissues make inhaling more difficult than exhaling, Tai said.
Asthma is characterized by a whistling breathing sound due to lower airway obstruction, where contraction of the inflamed bronchial muscle makes exhaling more difficult than inhaling, she added.
Croup is usually not serious and can be treated at home, but children who have croup and breathe with a wheezing sound even when not crying or agitated, or develop breathlessness, should seek a pediatrician’s advice on whether an adrenaline spray and long-lasting steroids are needed to reduce airway swelling, Tai said.
Noting that croup — which resembles a typical cold at the early stage — is also contagious, Tai said that enhanced household hygiene measures should be implemented if any family member has the infection.
People with croup should seek medical assistance immediately if they find themselves having a difficult time breathing and swallowing, becoming weak and pale, or if their symptoms last beyond seven days, she added.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
RSS