Be Careful With Asthma And The Flu
" Flu is always worse in children with asthma," said Dr. Anatoly Belilovsky, a pediatrician at Belilovsky Pediatrics in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn.
" Children with asthma tend to have a harder time with a lot of illnesses and what happens with asthma is the immune system overreacts to infections. Children with asthma usually do get sicker. Now the two things we can do for them, is one, be very aggressive and be very diligent in controlling their asthma. That means not just treating the occasional asthma attack; it means giving maintenance medications and monitoring that they are taking maintenance medications during long periods of time when your child feels absolutely fine.
" These are the children you worry less about," said Belilovsky. "If their asthma is under control, it they're diligent about controlling it, then their immune systems is not going to overreact to the influence of virus to the same extent that it would in somebody with uncontrolled asthma.
" Go ahead and get the two flu shots, this year's flu shot and the flu shot for H1N1.
Both are recommended for asthmatics. Not the nasal ones, though."
But the maintenance of asthma is key.
For more information:
http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/asthma
