patients With The Bleak Mid-summer

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allergy Winter

allergy winter

YOU'VE heard of SAD, no doubt - that unaccountable depression that often afflicts us during the long winter months.

It actually stands for Seasonal Affective Disorder, and it is pretty well documented.

But what about SWISS? According to some of the more speculative national newspapers, this is a new syndrome brought on by the shockingly bad weather - floods and all - we have been having recently.

SWISS stands, apparently, for Symptoms of Winter in Summer Syndrome.

And the evidence for SWISS? An increasing number of people with summer colds and flu brought on by the weather - and a decrease in the number of people suffering from hayfever.

advertisementBut is it true? According to chemist Paul Richardson, owner of Blossom St pharmacy PT and HJ Richardson Ltd, the rain has certainly dampened many people's hayfever.

"Apart from a few weeks when we had hot weather, in late April or early May, people have noticed their hayfever is not as bad," he said.

"There has been an increase in summer colds, but there is a summer virus around this year and although it is not flu, they are quite severe colds that are lasting two to three weeks rather than the usual seven to ten days."

Customers are reaching for lozenges and decongestants rather than anti-histamines, he confirmed. But he said hayfever is always weather dependant.

"Hayfever has certainly declined in the last few weeks. If you have three or four dry days, then hayfever could get worse. People suffer because of the pollen, especially when people start cutting their lawn, but when there is a lot of rain it keeps the pollen down.

"It is always weather dependant, but it has been quite unusual this year."

York GP Dr David Fair is sceptical however that what we are seeing this year is genuinely unusual.

There have definitely been quite a number of nasty viruses around, he admits.

"But I would say there is not enough evidence yet over this summer to say whether there is a genuine trend, or if this is just a slight blip.

"It is not unusual for people to come in with summer colds. These have always been around and they have nothing to do with the cold weather."

There had been plenty of people suffering hayfever earlier in the year, Dr Fair said, but in the last three to four weeks there had probably been fewer hayfever patients than normal.

"When it is wet, we tend to get fewer people coming along (with hayfever), he said. "I think it is just the damp weather, which does wash away some of the allergens."

So has it really been a good summer for hayfever sufferers and a bad one for colds and flu?

We asked around...

The cold sufferers

YORK sales Rep Rachael Lister has been suffering from a sore throat for three weeks now.

"It's been on and off for ages; you know when you think it's going to turn into something but never does?" she said.

"But it developed into a cold on Monday and I was off work for a day."

Her boyfriend, Lee Stafford, has been ill with a cold too, and several of her colleagues have suffered with colds this summer.

She is nursing a chesty cough and sniffles now, but is starting to feel better.

"I don't tend to get colds at all because I do a lot of exercise, but I've been really headachy too, which is unusual for me.

"I've been feeling achy and waking up through the night trying to soothe my throat."

It has not all been bad for Lee though.

He usually gets terrible hayfever, but has barely suffered this year, says Rachael.

"It's been better than it has been for years. He's hardly had to take anything for it at all.

He puts it down to all the rain."

John, a 36-year-old York design manager who didn't want his surname to be used, is one of those lucky people who rarely gets ill.

At least, until a year or so ago. In the last ten months, he says, he has been struck down with a nasty virus twice.

He suffered particularly badly last week - and still hasn't completely shaken off the effects.

"I was bedridden last week," he said miserably. "When I finally submitted and went to the doctor it was a cross between flu, which makes you hot and cold and shivery, and the worst hangover you can imagine."

So does he think his pitiful condition is down to the weather?

No, he says - he blames his three-year- old daughter. "Though I wouldn't tell her that!"

She started pre-school about a year ago, he said - and he believes that through her contact with other children she and then he himself have been exposed to a wider range of viruses than before.

She had a virus before him, and he's convinced he got it from her, John says.

He said the original bug that made his daughter ill may have been something to do with the weather.

The hayfever sufferers

FOR hayfever sufferer Lisa McCaffrey, summer usually brings weeks of stuffiness, sneezing and itchy eyes.

This year, however, it has been surprisingly mild.

She said: "Usually my sinuses feel really tight, my eyes are watering and itching so bad I want to scratch them out of my head and I feel like I've got a constant cold.

"I'm still suffering this year and I've still got slight symptoms but I'm nowhere near as bad."

Lisa, 26, still takes medication for her sinuses every day, but hasn't used her nasal sprays for about five weeks.

A wet summer has brought changes to her social life too; she can now enjoy sitting in beer gardens and driving her car is much more pleasant. She does not want every summer to be a wash-out, however. "In some ways it's been nice, but I don't want a wet summer every time."

Not everyone has been enjoying the respite though.

Fellow hayfever sufferer Helen Gabriel, 26, says this year has been her worst ever. She said: "I've had hayfever every year since I was tiny.

"This year has been the worst for as long as I can remember.

"I've had really itchy, puffy eyes and a runny nose.

"As long as I take an anti-histamine I'm fine, but if I forget to take one and hayfever starts then it can be really severe."

The allergy expert

THERE is no doubt that in the last couple of weeks, hayfever sufferers have been less badly affected than normal at this time of year, said Lindsey McManus, of charity Allergy UK.

She said: "When the weather is a bit damper, it does damp down pollen in the air, and makes it less easily for it to float around. But that has just been in the last couple of weeks. Overall, I would say this year has been as bad as ever."

If anything, she said, changing weather patterns over recent years have seen the hayfever season getting longer, not shorter.

It used to start in mid-April, but nowadays sufferers were beginning to be affected three to four weeks earlier than that.

Exactly when hayfever sufferers start to notice the effects will depend on which pollen they are allergic to, Lindsey said.

Trees release their pollen earliest - with the grasses following suit mid-summer. Then, in September when the leaves start to fall, mould spores appear - causing another wave of hayfever sufferers.

Some unlucky people can be allergic to more than one type of pollen, Lindsey added - meaning they faced a long, miserable summer.

So for them, at least, if not for the rest of us, the damp, wet weather we're experiencing may offer a brief respite.

Unhealthy results of flooding

THE damp weather could affect our health in more ways than one, say health experts.

Virus expert Dr Ken Flint of Warwick University warned a lethal brew of bugs and bacteria left behind by the floods could kill hundreds of vulnerable people.

Dr Flint said the elderly, very young and infirm were at risk from potentially lethal bacteria such as e.coli and salmonella that would be left behind in the sludge once the floods recede.

He said the health implications meant it was vital the hundreds of thousands of flood victims maintained a strict hygiene regime.

Meanwhile, floods expert Professor Ian Cluckie said: "People need to realise this is raw sewage they are walking around in.

"I've seen pictures of kids walking around in the flood water. For God's sake don't let them."

Dr Shona Arora, director of public health for Gloucestershire, has said sanitation was becoming an "increasing issue".

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