Those afflicted by hay fever have been noticing the rising pollen concentrations in the air.
“It started earlier than usual this year, but the symptoms are always the same: sneezing, a prickling in the nose and stinging eyes. I’ve been taking my medication for around ten years, it’s always the same”, explained an affected person to RTL.be.
“I’ve had it for over 30 years. Symptoms include a runny nose, small patches on my back and trouble breathing. I take antihistamines and it goes away”, explains another patient.
But with the pandemic, some of the symptoms can lead to uncertainty. “Some of the symptoms are the same for the Coronavirus and allergies: the respiratory problems, but also a runny or blocked nose. These occur in both cases,” explains Marie Minet, a pulmonologist at the hospital Notre-Dame de Grâce in Gosselies.
“In case of Covid, you will usually experience a strong fatigue as well as muscular and joint aches and a fever, in addition to nasal and respiratory symptoms. That sounds more like Covid”, adds Marie Minet. “Without the fever and the joint pain, it’s more likely to be allergies.”
In that case, you should simply take your allergy medication. “It is easy to become worried, so we advise known allergy sufferers to start their normal treatment as early as possible, so they don’t end up in the uncertainty of not knowing if they have allergies or the current viral infection,” adds Valérie Dufresne, another pulmonologist.
Independently of the Coronavirus, specialists stress that it is important to see a doctor if you suffer from respiratory problems due to allergies.
