![Pollen season is over. Have we learnt our thunderstorm asthma lesson? Pollen season is over. Have we learnt our thunderstorm asthma lesson?](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/mark.kearney/30cce6ac-1c4e-4396-9f97-dfd38cae828d.jpg/r0_1088_2333_2610_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
The system used to warn Victorians when the threat of thunderstorm asthma is high will be rested from tomorrow.
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But health experts are asking hayfever and asthma sufferers to continue monitoring their health.
The thunderstorm asthma forecasts will cease until October 1, 2018. It used grass pollen data collection sites, including one in Bendigo, to warn people when the risk of the illness peaked.
The state government initiative was an effort to stave off another major health event like what occurred on November 21 last year, when nine people died and the state’s ambulance network was overwhelmed with calls for help.
But Victoria’s chief health officer, Charles Guest, said the end of the grass pollen season did not mean asthma or hay fever were risk-free.
“We want everyone – especially people with asthma and hay fever – to be as prepared as they can all year round,” he said.
“Grass pollen season is over, but asthma symptoms may develop at any time, so make sure you have an up to date asthma action plan.”
Asthmatics are encouraged to use a preventer medication regularly, correctly use their inhalers and visit their doctors if symptoms are ongoing.
Asthma Australia chief executive officer Michele Goldman said doing so would make a person less vulnerable to flare-ups.
“People often treat their asthma as a short-term condition that comes and goes when they have asthma symptoms,” Ms Goldman said.
But asthma is a chronic condition that’s always there, even when you don’t have symptoms.”
Strathfieldsaye UFS pharmacist manager Cristina Mazzarino said her customers were this year more aware of thunderstorm asthma and the danger it posed to their health.
More people were seeking preventative treatments for the asthma and allergies, not just medications that relieved the symptoms.
he 2017 hayfever season was “about on par” with previous allergy seasons, she said.
But Ms Mazzarino predicted people who suffered from hayfever would continue to experience symptoms for at least the first month of 2018.
Even then the threat of allergies did not abate entirely, with other triggers like dusts, plants, moulds and animal dander still causing some people concern, the pharmacist manager said.
That was exacerbated in summer, with more people spending time outdoors.