Protect yourself from thunderstorm asthma

During grass pollen season people may notice an increase in asthma and hay fever. Grass pollen season also brings the chance of thunderstorm asthma.

Thunderstorm asthma is thought to be triggered by a unique combination of high grass pollen counts and a certain type of thunderstorm. For people who have asthma or hay fever this can cause severe asthma symptoms, making it difficult to breathe. When a large number of people develop asthma symptoms over a short period of time, this is known as epidemic thunderstorm asthma. These epidemic thunderstorm asthma events don't happen every year but when they do, they can happen during grass pollen season, which is normally from October through December. 

The Victorian Government has recently launched a new public information and education campaign to ensure that all Victorians are prepared as they can should another epidemic asthma event occur.

Visit www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au to access all campaign resources and information