Pollen storm kills 6 in Australia
Six people are dead and five are on ventilators after a rare pollen storm known as "thunderstorm asthma" hit Melbourne, Australia.
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| Dark clouds blanket Melbourne's skies before a thunderstorm spreads pollen across the city. Photo: AP. |
Melbourne Health Department said yesterday that six people died in hospital on November 26 from complications after a storm hit Australia's second largest city earlier last week, according to AP.
Five people are in intensive care, three of them in critical condition. Another 12 people are also in hospital with mild respiratory illness.
The November 21 storm spread pollen throughout the city. The pollen penetrated deep into the lungs, causing many to have asthma attacks. About a third of those affected reported no previous history of asthma, and 8,500 people were hospitalized for examination and treatment.
The first "thunderstorm asthma" was reported in Melbourne in 1987, when the number of people hospitalized for asthma increased fivefold. Similar events have occurred in the US, Canada, the UK and Italy. The last time Melbourne had an "asthma storm" was in November 2010.
According to VNE
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