Coughing In Public Places

Recently my wife wanted to invite a girlfriend to our home and she asked me to go out for a while. As I enjoy the coffee shops and restaurants of Vilnius, I did not object. I took my laptop and headed towards a nearby coffee shop where I knew that internet was available. When I arrived I ordered a cup of coffee and started to surf the web.

A few minutes later, I realized that a young man about two tables away was coughing loudly and regularly. He was sitting at a table of two others who did not seem to notice. But it made me very uncomfortable. There were two possibilties. The young man is a frequent smoker or he had a lung infection. I paid for my coffee and left. Why?

A few years ago, my wife and I were staying in a hotel and a family with a young child was seated at a table next to us. The child was obviously very sick. We changed tables. But either we did not go far enough or it was too late. My wife became very ill the next day. She visited a doctor who prescribed antiobiotices. It took about 1 month until she was better again. It was one of the worst illnesses she has had since we have been together.

So, after leaving the first cafe, I went to another. Moments after I sat down, a young woman sat down a couple of tables away and began to cough regularly. Again I left. I went to several cafes and experienced the same thing. Eventually I gave up and went home.

Don't people understand that when they cough, they are potentially giving their illness to everyone else? This is not new. Ruby O Stern wrote about it in the British Medical Journal in 1938.

Severe lung infections such as pertussis (whooping cough) are spread this way. "People with pertussis can spread the disease by coughing or sneezing while in close contact with others, who then breathe in the pertussis bacteria.". No kidding. The rate of pertussis infection is rapidly rising and it can be deadly, easpecially to babies. Having a baby at home, I am very conscious of this. Of course he has been vaccinated, but no vaccine is 100% effective. Don't people understand this? Or they just don't care? This does not just happen in Vilnius. It happens everywhere.

If you are sick, and unless it is urgently necessary to do otherwise, stay home until you are better. To do otherwise just puts someone else at risk of getting ill.