Airway Infections Map

Where each infection hits, upper vs lower · Week 12
The dividing line is the larynx, your voice box. Everything above it is the upper airway. Everything below it is the lower airway, where gas exchange happens. Click an infection to see where it lives, whether a virus or bacteria causes it, and how sick it makes you.

The respiratory tract

Air goes nose & sinuses → throat → voice box → windpipe → lungs. The gold line marks the upper and lower divide at the larynx.
Pick an infection to light up where it lives.
Pick an infectionupper & lower airway

👆 Pick an infection

What it is

⚠ Do not mix these up: acute bronchitis is a viral "chest cold" that clears up on its own. Chronic bronchitis is a form of COPD. Long-term irritants like smoke cause it, the damage is permanent, and it is not an infection.
Big rule: most upper airway infections are viral and self-limiting, which means they clear on their own. You just support the patient with fluids, rest, and relief of symptoms. The heavy hitter deep in the air sacs is pneumonia. It is usually bacterial, and it needs antibiotics.