Your child’s asthma and Coronavirus

The corona pandemic has been with us for well over six months now and we have seen the devastation it has caused in many countries across the world.

Here in Australia things have been less drastic, but particularly here in Victoria we have experienced the devastating effect this illness can have on people.

Maybe more than any other recent illness, COVID-19 has shown us how different the effect of illnesses can be on children compared to ‘big people’. Often, infectious illnesses like influenza or bacterial infections can make children sicker much quicker than adults and, often, to a more severe degree. So it was only natural that parents all over the world worried what this would mean to their children when the pandemic spread across the globe.

We now know that COVID-19 is not a major risk to children. In fact, overall it seems to be less a threat to children than the seasonal influenza that can cause very severe illness – and sometimes even death – in children. Australia has seen only very few children with severe illness from COVID-19. No child in Australia has died from this illness.

But all over the world families, parents and doctors have been worried about another group that may be severely affected: children with asthma, particularly those children with ‘severe asthma’.

Let me give you the good news straight out: we have not seen children with asthma being at greater risk of complications because of this coronavirus. Even if a child with asthma does happen to catch COVID-19 they do not get sicker than children without asthma. Neither at Monash Children’s Hospital, where I work most days, nor elsewhere in Australia or anywhere else in the world have we seen children with asthma becoming very sick from coronavirus. This is very reassuring news. And to top it all off: adults with asthma who contract COVID-19 also do not seem to do any worse than adults without asthma.

After evaluating the international data on COVID-19 and asthma in children most of my colleagues and I have recommended for children with asthma to continue their treatment and daily life as before. For most asthmatic children there is no medical reason to keep them away from others or from school.

The most important thing for any child with asthma is good asthma control – whether that’s during the current pandemic or not.

So make sure your child’s asthma plan is up to date and school have a copy, you’ve got their medicines available and know how to administer them. And if any of this needs updating, see your friendly GP to polish up the edges. Almost all children with asthma are perfectly ok to attend school even during this pandemic. For those with very tricky asthma or complex medical conditions a discussion with your GP or Paediatrician will help map out the best way forward.

Superglue for your health?

My glasses broke and won’t stay on my head. Now I can’t read, can’t look through patient files, can’t do anything, really. But it’s Lockdown II, stage 4 and you can only go out for essential groceries and emergencies. Not really an emergency, is it? So here I am, fixing my glasses with super glue. No biggie. But I start wondering whether some of my patients might be taking a similar approach with their health. Superglue for your health? A truly frightening thought.

We have been worried about this for a while. My colleagues and I have all heard about cases where patients found a lump, or  a new mole, had chest pain or suffered from severe anxiety but decided to delay making an appointment with their doctor. Their fear about potentially exposing themselves to a higher risk of COVID-19, it appears, pushed aside all valid concerns about the real health emergency they may be facing – and should be addressing.

Can I suggest something? Call your GP and arrange a Telehealth appointment. Then we can identify the health issue and plan the next required steps together to tackle your medical issue. This may mostly be manageable via Telehealth. For some issues that may include us recommending to see you in person to make sure we can avoid your health issue deteriorating. We will only advise this if truly necessary but rest assured Eleanor Clinic has highly diligent COVID precautions in place. This includes full PPE for all staff, diligent hand hygiene and full room sanitisation after each patient.

True: Telehealth is not the same as face-to-face consultations. We do miss seeing you in person.
We love sitting down with you in our room, listening to you and being able to examining you properly. We miss cuddling babies, clowning around with toddlers and showing them they can trust us so they let us examine them. Walking with our seniors slowly into our room, watching how they carefully make one step after another.
So yes: Telehealth doesn’t offer it all. But it allows us to get to the core of issues and address them for many of our patients. We can take a good history, assess rashes using photos you send us, write referral letters, organise blood tests, x-rays and ultrasounds. Eleanor Clinic also supports electronic prescribing of your medicines where you simply present a bar-code to your chemist that we sent you electronically. And for those chemists that don’t yet support this we can fax your script.
If I made my optician’s skills sound like a success story, I’m afraid I spoke too soon. My glasses kept falling apart besides my super glue hack. So, I have actually made an appointment to get them fixed by a professional today. Turns out this is still allowed if you rely on your glasses.
So, take it from me: it’s worth having a professional help with the important things in life. So: please book an appointment with your GP to look after yourself. And I’ll be off having my glasses fixed professionally – promise!

Eleanor Clinic’s drive-through vaccinations are here.

After a lockdown-related hiatus we are bringing back childhood vaccinations to Eleanor Clinic – with a twist!

Eleanor Clinic is joining the Royal Children’s Hospital call to get all kids up to date with their vaccinations before the lockdown is over.

As COVID case numbers have come down due to the lockdown, it is now important to make sure that everyone’s vaccinations are up to date. When kinder and schools open again kids will do lots of mingling with their friends. This is what children do – interact with each other and being active! But close contact increases the risk for outbreaks of whooping cough, measles and chicken pox if vaccination rates aren’t high. Australia is one of the leading countries in the world regarding excellent vaccination rates – let’s make sure we remain in the safe zone!

How it works:

1Book an immunisation appointment with our nurse online.

2At your given appointment time call Eleanor Clinic reception on arrival in the car park: 9318 4666. Please remain in your car.

3Our nurse and doctor will come to your car. We will be wearing PPE and will say hello. We will check your child’s temperature and have time to answer any questions.

4You are welcome to have your child sitting on your lap during the vaccination for cuddling and reassurance. Feel free to bring a little surprise for your little one as a distraction and reward for after the vaccination.

5After a 5 min observation period you are able to drive back home.

Let’s make sure that all our kids are protected by having them fully vaccinated. Together we can do it!