Protracted bacterial bronchitis (PBB) is a wet, “smoker-like” cough that persists more than 4 weeks (chronic, not remitting cough) and promptly responds to an appropriate antimicrobial treatment. Although it is the most common cause of chronic cough, it did not feature in paediatric textbooks until very recently and has remained largely unrecognised and often misdiagnosed as asthma. The paper highlights the main clinical features of PBB and the diagnostic difficulties physicians can face through some patients’ stories.
