Regarding seasonal respiratory infections, be sure to keep plenty of Vit C, zinc, homeopathics, CS and herbs on hand so you can start taking them the minute you start to feel ill. Take them all simultaneously. Silver bullet approaches do not work. It is the combination of many things that will cure you.
Important thing is not to wait until the disease is raging to do something about it. The minute you feel yourself getting sick, give your body the support it needs to get rid of the stuff. Once these things are in full bloom, it is much more difficult to eliminate them.
Use a homeopathic repertory to look up your symptoms, and as soon as they change, switch remedies. You may need three remedies in one day. Oscillococcinum will nip flu in the bud if you take plenty of it with things like C, hot ginger lemonade, garlic, and a super strong nutraceutical multi vitamin. Take it as needed, when your body starts to ache again, even if it is much more frequently than what the label recommends.
I don't know if the manufacturers are afraid to recommend a dose that will cure, because products that cure people are routinely prohibited by the FDA, or if they know most people are very toxic, and mega herxing is dangerous for people who are mega toxic.
Here is a link to some information that will help a lot if you read it all realizing that there is an attempt to delicately avoid the word "parasite" or "hookworm" or "ascaris" or "dwarf tapeworms" or "hydatid sand" or "scolex" by talking about granulomas and eosinophils...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eosinophilic_pneumonia
IMHO- Bacteria, viruses, hookworms, ascaris, tapes and who knows what else can all infect lung tissue, especially if the lungs have been rendered weak and/or vulnerable for some reason. Smokers, people with Hep C and HIV make great hosts.
Parasites go where they can, where it's easiest for them to go, where they can find plenty of weak and/or decaying tissue to feast on. Perhaps they are on a mission to destroy because they are biological machines programmed to eliminate the least fit via natural selection.
This is another link that is very helpful-
http://www.cdfound.to.it/hTML/at_lung.htm
Bottom line, don't weaken your lungs with smoke, not even to burn incense or to smudge. Take herbs that support the lungs. You will find numerous formulas at the health food stores. Try several until you find one that suits you.
If you have ever smoked or lived in an ashram where they burned incense, or you inhaled too much sage at sweat lodges, you need to eat lots of miso soup with Kombu in it. It made me cough up THC ten years after I quit smoking pot.
The kind that sting the lungs do not like it when you take garlic, bloodroot, red clover stillingia, SSKI and/or Iodine.
Regarding symptoms: coughing, asthma, wheezing, emphysema, pain in chest, exhaustion, shortness of breath, hyperventilation, fever, itchy stingy sensations, sensations of movement, gurgling sensastion, tickling sensations, phlegm.
Ascaris migrates from stomach to liver to lungs and start out as intestinal pain. Eventually you have trouble breathing.
Schistosomas eventually causes bladder cancer but it starts out with fever cough and chills.