The use of weather information to understand the annual distribution of asthma attacks in Switzerland: Influence of pollen and temperature

✍ Scribed by Th. Frei

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2007
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 472 KB
• Volume: 2
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1350-4827
• DOI: 10.1002/met.5060020204

✦ Synopsis

The Federal Public Health Department in Switzerland has collected asthma data, amongst other epidemiological data, since 1988. According to these data there are two major peaks in asthma attacks each year: one is around May-June and corresponds to the appearance of grass pollen whereas the other peak is around November and partly corresponds to the invasion of cold air. Also, there are some minor peaks in March-April that correspond with the appearance of birch pollen and one in December or January that is probably partly induced by seasonal virus infections. I t is found that the release and transport of grass and birch pollen are affected b y the mean temperatures. Further investigations will be required to show whether meteorological models could be used to make pollen forecasts. This in turn could form the basis of asthma forecasts for medical doctors and hospitals (so that they could organise their resources) and for the public (so that they could control their use of medicine).