Asthma and flu a risky combination – get immunised
Even if your asthma is well managed, you are at higher risk of complications if you catch influenza (flu).
For example, adults and children with asthma are more likely to develop pneumonia after getting sick with the flu than people who do not have asthma.
If you have been diagnosed with asthma and are on a regular preventative therapy, or have another chronic chest or breathing condition, you are eligible for a free flu shot from a doctor or nurse.
Immunisation is also especially important for people 65 years and over, pregnant women and young children who are at a higher risk of complications when they get flu.
Free flu shots are available for adults and children six months and older between April and December 31 each year. However, autumn is the best time to get your annual flu shot so you're protected before flu season strikes.
To better match circulating viruses, the two funded flu vaccines will contain four inactivated virus strains, specially formulated for the New Zealand 2019 season.
Flu can be anywhere, so you can easily catch it.
Influenza is not the same as a cold. It’s a serious disease that can also make other existing conditions, such as asthma, even worse, and it can kill.
Immunisation is the best protection against influenza. Even if you still catch the flu after immunisation, your symptoms are less likely to be severe.
What’s more, having a flu shot every year can keep people 65 and over healthy and active for longer.
The natural decline in immunity associated with aging can increase an older person’s vulnerability to both the risk of infectious disease and serious complications.
Older people have lower physiological reserves to aid a return to pre-illness function.
Research shows that you can infect others with the flu virus even when you’re not showing symptoms yourself. So, if you’re caring for someone with asthma, you can help avoid passing the virus on to them by being immunised.
The influenza vaccine is a prescription medicine. Talk to your doctor, nurse or pharmacist about the benefits and possible risks. And, if you’re 65 years and over, ask if you’re also eligible for free shingles immunisation.
Check out www.fightflu.co.nz to find out whether you qualify for free flu vaccination or call 0800 IMMUNE 0800 466 863.
ENDS
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Asthma and Respiratory Foundation NZ contact details:
Email: marketing@asthmaandrespiratory.org.nz
For more information visit: asthmaandrespiratory.org.nz
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The following are updated statistics from The Impact of Respiratory Disease in New Zealand: 2018 Update.
Respiratory disease in New Zealand:
- Respiratory disease includes asthma, bronchiectasis, childhood bronchiolitis, childhood pneumonia and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
- Respiratory disease is New Zealand’s third most common cause of death.
- Respiratory disease costs New Zealand more than $7 billion every year (Barnard & Zhang, 2018).
- One in six (over 700,000) New Zealanders live with a respiratory condition, and these rates are worsening (Barnard & Zhang, 2018).
- Respiratory disease accounts for one in ten of all hospital stays (Barnard & Zhang, 2018).
- More than half of the people admitted to hospital with a poverty-related condition are there because of a respiratory problem such as asthma, bronchiolitis, acute infection or pneumonia (Barnard & Zhang, 2018).
- People living in the most deprived households are admitted to hospital for respiratory illness over three times more often than people from the wealthiest areas (Barnard & Zhang, 2018).
- Across all age groups, hospitalisation rates are much higher for Pacific peoples (2.5 times higher) and Māori (2.4 times higher) than for other ethnic groups (Barnard & Zhang, 2018).
Asthma in New Zealand:
- Over 597,000 people take medication for asthma − one in eight adults and one in seven children (Source: New Zealand Health Survey).
- Large numbers of children (3,050 or 326.6 per 100,000 in 2017) are still being admitted to hospital with asthma, and some of these will have had a potentially life-threatening attack (Barnard & Zhang, 2018).
- By far the highest number of people being admitted to hospital with asthma are Māori, Pacific peoples and people living in the most deprived areas: Māori are almost 3 times and Pacific peoples 3.2 times more likely to be hospitalised than Europeans or other New Zealanders, and people living in the most deprived areas are almost 3 times more likely to be hospitalised than those in the least deprived areas (Barnard & Zhang, 2018).
- The cost of asthma to the nation is over $1 billion per year (Barnard & Zhang, 2018).
Bronchiectasis in New Zealand:
- An estimated 8,366 or 175 per 100,000 people are living with severe bronchiectasis (Barnard & Zhang, 2018).
- Although bronchiectasis is much less common than other respiratory conditions, hospitalisation rates increased by 45% between 2000 and 2017 to 31.1 per 100,000, and deaths doubled from 42 per year in 2000/01 to 116 in 2015 (Barnard & Zhang, 2018).
- There is a much higher risk of hospitalisation or death for people of Māori and Pacific ethnicity: Pacific people are 6.2 times, and Māori 3.8 times more likely to be hospitalised than other New Zealanders (non-Māori, non-Pacific and non-Asian), and these differences are similar for mortality (Barnard & Zhang, 2018).
- People living in the most deprived areas are 3.2 times more likely to be hospitalised and 1.8 times more likely to die from bronchiectasis than those in the least deprived areas (Barnard & Zhang, 2018).
Childhood bronchiolitis in New Zealand:
- Hospitalisation rates have increased by nearly half, from 3,984 in 2000 to 6,320 (2,065 per 100,000) in 2017 (Barnard & Zhang, 2018).
- These rates are 3 times higher for Māori children and 3.5 times higher for Pacific children than for other New Zealanders (Barnard & Zhang, 2018).
Childhood pneumonia in New Zealand:
In New Zealand, while the overall death rate has not changed over time and hospitalisations have reduced, there are extreme inequities:
- Childhood death rates from pneumonia are 4 times higher for Māori children and 5.6 times higher for Pacific children than for other New Zealanders (non-Māori, non-Pacific, non-Asian). Of the 122 children who died between 2006 and 2015, 53 were Māori and 38 were Pacific (Barnard & Zhang, 2018).
- Hospitalisation rates are 1.5 times higher for Māori children and 2.4 times higher for Pacific children than for other New Zealanders (non-Māori, non-Pacific, non-Asian) (Barnard & Zhang, 2018).
- Childhood pneumonia hospitalisation rates are highest in the most deprived areas of New Zealand: 3 times higher in the most deprived areas than in the least deprived areas. Over half of all deaths occur in the most deprived areas (Barnard & Zhang, 2018).
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in New Zealand:
- 11,842 New Zealanders aged 45 and over were hospitalised due to COPD in 2017 (Barnard & Zhang, 2018).
- COPD is often undiagnosed, and for this reason at least 200,000 (or 15%) of the adult population may be affected (Broad & Jackson, 2003).
- Between 2000 and 2015 there were no changes in COPD hospitalisation rates, but there was a decline in reported mortality due to COPD (Barnard & Zhang, 2018).
- A large proportion of COPD deaths are not recorded as such because of misreporting or a co-morbidity (e.g. heart failure or pneumonia) being the final cause of death.
- Even with under-reporting, COPD is still the fourth leading cause of death after ischaemic heart disease, stroke and lung cancer (Broad & Jackson, 2003).
- Hospitalisation rates are highest for Māori, at 3.5 times the non-Māori, non-Pacific, non-Asian rate for hospitalisation, and 2.2 times the rate for mortality (Barnard & Zhang, 2018).
- Pacific people’s hospitalisation rates are 2.7 times higher than those of other New Zealanders (Barnard & Zhang, 2018).
- COPD hospitalisation rates are 5.7 times higher in the most deprived areas than in the least deprived, and mortality rates are 2.2 times higher (Barnard & Zhang, 2018).
- COPD rates are relatively evenly spread across the country, though mortality in 2015 was above average in Canterbury, Southern and Waitemata DHBs (Barnard & Zhang, 2018).
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