Warm weather brings sneezing season

As one of the worst flu seasons slowly grinds to a close, state residents soon may face another health problem.

Experts said spring allergies could be particularly bad this season, with at least one physician attributing the phenomenon to therun of wet weather.

“Moisture plus the warmth of the sun is the recipe for excessive pollination,” said Dr. Christopher Randolph, a clinical professor of pediatrics in allergy and immunology at Yale University. “We have had a lot of melting snow around, plus the heavy rains we just had.”

All that means that those whose allergies are aggravated by pollen — particularly tree pollen — could face a tough time in the coming days.

“The next warm, sunny day we have, it’s going to be very bad,” said Kenneth Backman, allergy section chief at Bridgeport Hospital.

According to the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, allergies are the sixth leading cause of chronic illness in the U.S. with an annual cost in excess of $18 billion. More than 50 million Americans suffer from allergies each year.

Allergies are chronic conditions in which the body’s immune system perceives a substance — such as pollen, dust or certain foods — as a threat, and has an abnormal reaction to that substance.

For the millions of Americans who suffer from seasonal allergic rhinitis known as hay fever, pollen is a main trigger, and can lead to symptoms including sneezing, a stuffy or runny nose and itchy eyes.

May is the usual start of the spring allergy season, as that’s when pollen production tends to pick up. But Randolph and Backman said they’ve already started to see people come in with symptoms.

“We have been seeing people with symptoms, especially over the weekend (when temperatures hit the high 60s),” Backman said, adding “it hasn’t hit hard yet, because the weather is still cold.”

Randolph, who is in private practice in Waterbury, agreed the season is just starting.

“Our (pollen) counts are starting to climb,” said Randolph, who works with the National Allergy Bureau’s pollen count station in Waterbury.

He said the tree-pollen counts have been low to moderate, but he expects them to be high soon.

Once pollination hits hard, it could mean agony for allergy sufferers.

“It could be a severe (allergy season),” Backman said. “If the weather gets nice and stays nice for a while, we could have bad days ahead.”

Nikolae - Fotolia / Contributed photo Experts said spring allergies could be particularly bad this season partly due to a recent run of wet weather.