Take precautions

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Posted 5 months ago

Ontario Lung Association encourages parents to take preventative steps to protect their children from the "September spike" -the annual increase in asthma-related emergency room visits that happens shortly after school begins.

This phenomenon usually occurs the third week in September when children are back in classroom settings and cold viruses are easily spread. The fall's anticipated H1N1 flu virus compounds the concern for the September spike that could potentially result in record numbers of children suffering asthma attacks and the over-burdening of Ontario hospital's Emergency Departments.

"Many respirologists refer to the September spike as the 'perfect storm'," says Carole Madeley, director of Respiratory Health Programs for the Ontario Lung Association. "Cold viruses, combined with the fact that many kids with asthma have changed or interrupted their regular asthma management schedule over the summer months, act as major triggers, resulting in a dramatic spike in visits to emergency departments."

Cold viruses -that are easily spread from person to person -are one of the most common triggers for asthma symptoms, a disease that affects about 20 per cent of Ontario children. Students are in close contact with each other in classrooms, schoolyards and buses, and this close contact helps germs spread and increases children's risk of infection. Parents are also at risk of catching the viruses brought home by their children.