Doctor’s warning to asthma sufferers amid coronavirus crisis.
Coughing and shortness of breath which are found to be key symptoms of the Covid-19, are also the symptoms that asthmatic people experience. Based on this, medical experts said that as it is yet not clear how asthma patients are ‘at risk’, it is advisable they take regular medication.
“I couldn’t imagine this being good for asthma, but there’s no evidence to say how bad it is for asthma at the moment,” Daily Mail quoted respiratory specialist Professor Brian Oliver as saying in ABC.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) said people with pre-existing medical conditions like asthma, diabetes, heart disease, are more vulnerable to becoming severely ill with contagion.
Professor Oliver of the University of Technology in Sydney, said that of much greater risk is another disease known as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or COPD, which are a group of lung disorders that block regular airflow and make it hard to breathe. But if someone already has asthma, professor Oliver recommended that they take medication to prevent a flare-up.
Adding that viruses make medications less effective, leading to issues like an asthma attack. “On a molecular level, viruses do this by desensitizing the pathway through which your puffer drug is designed to work,” he said.
“So if your bronchodilator [medication] isn’t working, when you have symptoms [caused by inflammation in response to the virus], the drugs that should be helping you don’t work as well,” he further added.