Pollen burst leads to 10 year spike in asthma cases

By Dr. Ananya Mandal, MDNov 25 2010

Melbourne hospitals are flooded with patients with respiratory problems in a phenomenon experts have described as “thunderstorm asthma”.

According to head of The Alfred hospital’s allergy and asthma service, Associate Professor Jo Douglass, the days of high pollen counts followed by a thunderstorm had caused the epidemic, which was the worst in a decade. She explains that there is a rapid rise of humidity which often precedes a thunderstorm. This has lead to a burst of pollen releasing tiny particles that could be inhaled into the lungs and trigger asthma. She revealed that The Alfred had treated 90 patients with breathing difficulties overnight on Wednesday - about 10 times the usual number. They had to set up an extra ward to keep dozens under observation once its respiratory ward reached capacity. Similar numbers were attended in other hospitals like Monash Medical Centre in Clayton (46 patients), the Royal Melbourne Hospital (41) and the Royal Children's Hospital (26). Ambulance Victoria also had a tough time in order to cope with more than 200 call-outs for people with breathing difficulties.

Regional services general manager Tony Walker said as the workload rose the waiting time to offload patients at the emergency rose simultaneously. Professor Douglass assured that probably the worst of the epidemic was over but some people do have a delayed reaction to the weather conditions and hospitals are preparing for that. She urged people with high fever and wheezing, and recommended asthmatics to report immediately. She added the problem might continue if there was warmer, unstable weather.