Asthma with flu for kids is dangerous

A new study was published in the Pediatrics explaining that for you to keep your asthmatic child out of the emergency room, it is necessary to have her receive a flu shot.

This study was done by the University of Montreal researchers who found that there is a high possibility that asthma treatment may fail when your child has the flu.

According to the study’s co-author, Francine Ducharme, “It is already established that if these kids happen to get the flu, the face the highest risk of failed treatment in the event of an abrupt asthma attack.”

Ducharme is a pediatrician and clinical epidemiologist.

She added that at the moment, there is an overall fail risk of 17% which increases to 40% when the child has the flu.

Asthma is a chronic disease that affects the airways and the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America estimates that 1 in every 12 United States children is asthmatic.

The researchers warned that preschoolers were the most vulnerable groups of children, insisting that all children must receive their flu shot and that this must be done in a systematic manner.

How the study was done

To carry out this study, more than 1,000 children treated for moderate to a severe asthma attack in 5 Canadian emergency rooms were examined.

Nose swabs were also obtained from the children and then analyzed to determine if they had the flu or were prone to another respiratory virus.

In all the tested children, two-thirds of them were found to have a viral infection. 19 of these did not respond to the general standard used in treating an asthma attack. These standards include inhaled bronchodilators and oral corticosteroids.

When your child has flu, chances of a failed asthma med are higher.

The fail rate was 37% higher in children with influenza or parainfluenza as opposed to 13% fail rate in those without the virus.

The likelihood of asthma treatment to fail was also found to be high among children who tested positive for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). No link was found between failed asthma treatment and the common cold.

What’s the way forward? 

According to the study authors, the flu shot is often considered fallible but it provides people with asthma some form of protection against flu-related complications.

“Influenza remains that only respiratory virus that can be prevented through vaccination. It is recommended that kids with asthma be vaccinated on a yearly basis, in the fall, prior to the onset of a flu season,” said Caroline Quach, who co-authored the research. She is a microbiology associate professor at the University of Montreal.