Pollen storm kills 6 Australians

Six people have died and five are on ventilators after a storm carrying a rare pollen allergy known as "thunderstorm asthma" hit Melbourne, Australia.

Dark clouds blanketed the Melbourne sky before a thunderstorm dispersed pollen across the city. Photo: AP.

Melbourne's health department said yesterday that six people died in hospital on November 26 from complications following a storm that hit Australia's second-largest city earlier last week, according to AP.

Five people are in intensive care, three of them in critical condition. Twelve others are also hospitalized with mild respiratory illnesses.

The storm on November 21st dispersed pollen throughout the city. The pollen penetrated deep into the lungs, causing many people to experience asthma attacks. Approximately one-third of those affected reported no prior history of asthma, and 8,500 people required hospital visits for examination and treatment.

The first "asthma thunderstorm" was recorded in Melbourne in 1987, when the number of asthma hospitalizations surged fivefold. Similar events have occurred in the US, Canada, the UK, and Italy. The most recent "asthma thunderstorm" in Melbourne was in November 2010.

According to VNE