Page 43 - Demo

W e’re told the average person can survive up to four weeks without food, or four days without water, but when it comes to surviving without air, we’re in trouble after two minutes. In the game of staying alive, it seems air is the most valuable resource, yet it’s free. We can manage without air for brief periods, like those who enjoy freediving, confident that when their lungs need oxygen they can surface and draw a deep and satisfying breath. However, people with asthma or other respiratory conditions don’t need freediving to experience a desperate need for oxygen. When air quality drops to hazardous levels, drawing in a deep and satisfying breath isn’t as simple as it sounds. With the bushfire season about to start, memories of last summer’s catastrophic conditions are no doubt making some of those people anxious about the coming months, although there is good news. Pharmacy assistants can be a huge source of advice and support to those feeling vulnerable. To help you support people with respiratory health issues, this feature outlines the latest health recommendations for the bushfire season from Asthma Australia CEO Michele Goldman, a leading respiratory health specialist, and shares the advice of a frontline pharmacy owner who continued to serve patients while the bushfires burned. The summer of statistics The Black Summer Bushfires between July 2019 and March 2020 were unprecedented. In addition to the direct impact felt by some communities, the smoke created a wider public health emergency due to the poor, often hazardous air quality. At its worst, the smoke in Canberra caused the Air Quality Index to reach more than 25 times the hazardous level. In Sydney, it reached more than 10 times the hazardous level dozens of times between December and January. Bushfire smoke contains fine particles harmful to our health. People with asthma or other chronic conditions, very young children, pregnant women and RESPIRATORY HEALTH 41 the elderly are particularly vulnerable to its impacts. We can see how serious those impacts are with recent estimates showing the excess particles in last summer’s bushfire smoke affected 11.3 million people in Australia and caused 417 excess deaths, more than 3,000 cardiovascular and respiratory hospitalisations, and 1,300 trips to the emergency department for asthma during the 19 weeks of continuous fires. With the scale and duration of smoke exposure beyond anything on record, it’s believed the full health impacts are yet to be revealed and understood. The wound repair cycle In May 2020, seeking more knowledge about the potential burden, the Australian government made available $5 million for research into the health impacts of bushfires on the nation’s communities. University of Technology Sydney’s Professor Philip Hansbro received almost $1.1 million to be used for a project called ‘Defining and treating the physiological effects of bushfire smoke exposure’. Retail Pharmacy Assistants spoke to Professor Hansbro to find out more. “What we know is any exposure to the respiratory tract, whether it’s bushfire smoke, cigarette smoke or air pollution, causes an inflammatory response in the airways and lungs because the immune system thinks you’re getting an infection,” he said. “That causes the immune system to introduce immune cells that release factors to kill what they perceive to be pathogens. While they’re effective at killing pathogens, they damage healthy host cells, too. “If that happens once, your body is designed to deal with it, but the problem comes with longer or more intense periods of exposure.” Professor Hansbro explains how a continued cycle of wound and repair eventually leads to our system not being able to cope, resulting in the development of scar tissue, which is a major contributor during an asthma attack as it builds up inside the airways, making it hard for asthmatics to get enough air into their lungs. TO PAGE 42 RETAIL PHARMACY ASSISTANTS • AUG 2020