Skill Checkup: A 17-Year-Old Male With Shortness of Breath, Cough With Green Sputum, Headache, and Low-Grade Fever

Enrico Brunetti, MD

Disclosures

November 07, 2022

Patients with COVID-19 and moderate to severe or uncontrolled asthma are more likely to be hospitalized. Data have suggested that patients whose asthma is well-controlled are not at increased risk for COVID-19-related death. However, recent work has reported that the risk for COVID-19 death was increased in people who had recently needed oral corticosteroids (OCS) for their asthma and in hospitalized patients with severe asthma.

While respiratory viruses like COVID-19 are known triggers of asthma attacks, data have concluded that adults and children with asthma have a similar risk of being infected with COVID-19 as those without asthma. Current, albeit limited, evidence suggests that, similar to adults, children with obesity, diabetes, asthma or chronic lung disease, sickle cell disease, or immunosuppression might also be at increased risk for severe illness from COVID-19.

Finally, as the patient reported, cleaning and disinfecting products are known asthmagenics, and even simply spending more time at home, where there may be triggers like mold, may have a negative impact on asthma control.

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