Bronchitis comes in two forms, acute and chronic. Acute bronchitis is a fairly common illness that follows a cold or flu and often doesn’t require medication to treat it. Like most colds and flus, the body will run its course with the illness on its own. Most symptoms will fade away within a week or so, with the cough sometimes lingering on for several weeks after the illness has run its course. Chronic bronchitis can be serious and requires medical attention. It increases the risk of developing bacteria infections in the lungs that do require medication to clear up. Chronic bronchitis is also one of the conditions that are part of a chronic obtrusive pulmonary disease (COPD) diagnosis, so it is important to get checked out by a doctor for an accurate diagnosis and proper treatment. Repeated bouts of acute bronchitis can turn out to be a case of chronic bronchitis that hasn’t yet been diagnosed.