SUMMARY:
Recently in Australia, mainly Melbourne and other parts of Victoria, six people were killed through a "freak illness" called thunderstorm asthma. This is mainly a result from "a rare combination of weather and pollen". Twelve people have been hospitalized since those fatalities. Thunderstorm asthma is caused by grains from pollen breaking up and dispersing into the atmosphere during a time of humidity, eventually entering a person's lungs. Through the University of Melbourne, it was said that 74% of those that responded in the survey had experienced an asthma attack during the storm that occurred last week. Geography is a major factor in these attacks. They determine what storms will arise and how it will affect the inhabitants. They advise that those with asthma consistently watch the forecasts and keep your asthma medications up to date!
ANALYSIS:
Before reading this article, I understood that weather could severely affect the inhabitants in a specific area. However, I had never heard of it being this bad or even raising the death toll! I was surprised at how many people recorded that they had experienced an asthma attack during the previous storm. Something definitely needs to be done to improve the health of those affected by asthma. Asthma is a serious problem and I know what it feels like to have it! Having asthma, I know that that would be a very scary situation and not one that I would like to be in. Over 300 million people suffer from asthma each year, and having learned that many have died due to this freak illness, it worries me about all those people that deal with it day to day. Hopefully they will be able to fix this recurring situation or come up with some sort of cure to help those hurt by these types of storms!
http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/28/health/thunderstorm-asthma-australia/index.html
As someone who grew up with bad asthma (its gone now ! ) I find it interesting that I had never heard of this risk. How odd
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