Thunderstorm asthma epidemic warning for south eastern Australia

Australians have been warned that thunderstorms could spark a deadly asthma epidemic on the country’s east coast.

Professor Janet Davies, head of the allergy research group at the Queensland University of Technology, told the Daily Mail Australia that a ‘perfect storm’ of high pollen counts, humidity and wet weather would develop in the summer.

She said the events would be triggered by La Nina – a pattern of wet weather that has returned to the country for the third time in a row this year.

The last major asthma event involving thunderstorms took place in Melbourne in 2016.

Thousands of people, many of whom had never been diagnosed with asthma, were rushed to hospital, while 10 died of respiratory complications.

‘They tend to happen’ every five to six years,” Professor Davies said.

‘We haven’t had one since the big Victorian event of 2016 and we are going to our third La Nina this summer.”

The epidemics are caused when rain bursts pollen from temperate grasses into small particles, which are then suspended in the air and inhaled by residents.

Professor Davies has been studying the phenomenon for years and is the former head of the National Health and Research Council and the Auspollen partnership.

The alliance has established Australia’s first national standardized pollen monitoring program.

Professor Davies said the continued wet weather in recent years is making the grasses that produce the pollen more widespread and more abundant.

A scientific paper published by her team this year found that pollen levels in Brisbane were nearly three times higher between 2017 and 2021 than between 1994 and 1999.

Professor Davies said the events were mostly concentrated in southeastern Australia.

“There have been 23 thunderstorm asthma epidemics around the world in the past 20 years and 10 of those have been in Australia,” she said.

Melbourne (pictured) experienced a thunderstorm asthma in 2016 and they are associated with La Nina weather patterns

“There was the big event in Melbourne but there have been events in the south east in the temperate region from Victoria through NSW to southern Queensland.”

Deakin University AIRwatch director associate professor Cenk Suphioglu said this week for Victoria, heading into November, conditions were excellent for another event.

Professor Davies said it wasn’t just people with diagnosed asthma who were at risk.

“Those affected in Victoria were allergic to temperate grasses, especially ryegrass pollen, and had a history of hay fever, but only about half had a previous diagnosis of asthma and were later found to have latent asymptomatic asthma.”

Hay fever or seasonal allergic rhinitis occurs in the vast majority of people affected.

A recent study found that clinical testing can determine a risk factor for thunderstorm asthma and concerned people with hay fever should contact their GP who can prescribe preventive asthma treatments.