Respiratory tract infection

A respiratory tract infection, often shortened to RTI, is an infectious disease that involves the respiratory tract, the airways that carry air to and from the lungs. Medical writers divide these infections by location into upper respiratory tract infections, which are the milder group and include the common cold, and lower respiratory tract infections, which tend to be far more severe and include pneumonia. The term therefore names a broad family of illnesses grouped by the part of the body affected, rather than a single disease with one cause. This entry covers the family as a whole, while the upper respiratory infections are described separately in the atlas as a narrower condition. The description here follows the lead of the Wikipedia article and does not state causes, treatments or statistics beyond that division.