increase in cases of thunderstorm asthma

Dozens of consultations for asthma attacks. The head of the Argenteuil (Val-d’Oise) emergency department had never seen this, even in non-asthmatic patients. The common point between these allergic patients: crises that occurred during this stormy weekend. “On Sunday, it started to get worse, I had trouble getting up, breathing, I was very out of breath during my work, and had trouble recovering. It’s inexplicable“says a patient.

Strong presence of pollen and stormy episode

Calm has returned to the service after a weekend when asthma was the leading cause of emergency visits. “In the night from Saturday to Sunday, from midnight, we began to see a considerable influx of patients, with a diagnosis of an asthma attack, while they were non-asthmatic people aged 25“, describes Catherine Legall, head of the emergency department at Argenteuil hospital. AT the origin of this exceptional phenomenon, called storm asthma, a context of strong presence of pollen and an unusual storm episode in this season. These cases of thunderstorm asthma can be aggravated if pollution is added to the pollen and thunderstorm cocktail.