Current allergy season 'horrendous'

Eight-year-old Justus Brown has had allergy problems before, but nothing like he experienced Sunday on the way to church in Towson - an attack that his parents blame on last week's record pollen counts.

"He told me on Sunday morning he made a 'funny noise' when he breathed," recalled his mother, Kenya Brown, 37, of Owings Mills.

Justus was wheezing, and he knew something was wrong. "I thought I was going to die," he said. "It felt horrible every time I walked. Every second I had to bend down and catch my breath."

Justus spoke by phone yesterday from St. Joseph Medical Center, where he was admitted Sunday for an asthma attack during some of the worst spring pollen conditions that allergists have ever seen.

"It's been a horrendous allergy season," said Dr. John R. Bacon, an allergist and immunologist on the staff at St. Joseph. "Thankfully, we've had some rain to cleanse the atmosphere. I was supremely happy [about the rain] because it was difficult keeping up with the phone calls."

But there's more misery ahead for allergy sufferers, thanks to an unlucky combination of weather patterns that first amplified, and then synchronized, the spring peaks of both the tree and grass pollen seasons.

"We're in the peak of oak season, and the grasses are going to continue all though May and June," said Dr. Peter S. Creticos, clinical director of the Johns Hopkins Division of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

As bad as it has been for people whose allergy problems peak in the spring, he said, "It's just getting started for them."

Pollen-induced allergy and asthma symptoms are suspected of triggering a rash of complaints by school children across Baltimore County, school officials said.

When Parkville Middle School students first complained of breathing problems Friday, worried administrators called in the county Fire Department's medics and a hazmat team. They evacuated the school while they swept it for contaminants and hazardous materials. They found none.

Fire Department spokeswoman Elise Armacost said 15 students were evaluated for "mild respiratory symptoms." Five were taken to Franklin Square Hospital, where they were treated and released.

Allergy sufferers, meanwhile, are descending on their doctors.

"Over these past several weeks, we have seen people coming in with significant nasal, occular and chest problems," said Hopkins' Creticos. "Many people are saying this is the worst spring season they've encountered."

At St. Joseph, patients have been showing up with "general cold-like symptoms - sneezing, runny nose, coughing. Those with asthma are wheezing, with a tightness, or shortness of breath," said Dr. Robert A. L. Blake, a pediatric hospitalist.

"I can't put a firm number on it, but just from what we're seeing it seems the season is worse than it has been in prior years," he said. "Some [patients] actually required quite a bit of intervention."

People with allergies suffer almost every spring, of course. But this season is different. Drs. Jonathan Matz and David Golden have been recording pollen counts in Owings Mills since 1996. Until last week, the highest tree pollen numbers they had ever seen were in the range of 1,500 grains per cubic meter of air.

"Starting last week, in mid-week, we had our first [count of ] 2,200," Matz said. "Friday's count was [almost] 4,000."

Grass counts also soared to 161 on Friday. "Grass at 100 gives you more bang for the buck than a tree count of a thousand. And we're still in the midst of the highest point of the season. It's still going to be high for the next three to four weeks. There's no relief in sight," he said.

Creticos blames unlucky weather: "When the winter is mild, we tend to have a more robust tree and grass pollen season, because the plants thrive through the winter. They begin to pollinate earlier and the counts are higher."

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