[Eastbound]

"So how do they know for sure it's viral/bacterial and not fungal?"

Coccidiomycosis????? Hmmm! Good question. Symptoms and undiagnosability fits.

[Terriergal]

Well coccidiomycosis is one of many. aspergillosis or candida can cause it too. Aspergillosis in particular can be caught by smoking pot. (yeah, that's true...) -- now typically fungal lung infections don't occur except on immunocompromised people (cancer treatment, aids patients, transplant patients) however, if bacteria can build resistance to antibiotics, why can't yeast and other fungal agents develop more aggressive invasive characteristics?

I am not immunocompromised, but at certain times of the year I spend a lot of time fighting a burning slightly rattling sensation in my bronchial tubes and a persistent cough, with little fever. This will go on for a month and antibiotics don't do anything. And it seems to happen more often in the last five, six years or so.