Bronchitis can lead to pneumonia if you don't seek treatment. Bronchitis is an infection of the airways that lead to your lungs. Pneumonia is an infection inside one or both lungs. If bronchitis is left untreated, the infection can travel from the airways into the lungs.

Can a person have bronchitis and pneumonia at the same time?

“And you can have both bronchitis and pneumonia at the same time,” Dr. Holguin says. That said, in some cases bronchitis does turn into (thereby causing) pneumonia. This occurs when either the infection spreads from the bronchial tubes to the lungs or a secondary infection occurs.

How long does it take to get over bronchitis and pneumonia?

Most people get over an acute bout of bronchitis in two to three weeks, although the cough can sometimes hang on for four weeks or more. If you're in otherwise good health, your lungs will return to normal after you've recovered from the initial infection.