Health disparities: Asthma/Covid-19

[LL46]

Hello, my user name is LL46. I am a registered nurse and a baccalaureate nursing student. I am researching ways Covid-19 affects age/gender/racial groups differently. For example, in my state, the rate of infection and death is double for the 80 year old and over group and for the Black and Hispanic population. I am interested in learning about any barriers you have experienced with obtaining information, testing, and healthcare related to asthma or Covid-19. This will help me understand the real life challenges of patients, and I will use this information to better care for future patients.

Thank you.

[AirIsUnderrated]

Which country are you in, and are you interested in feedback from countries other than yours?

[LL46 in reply to AirIsUnderrated]

Hi AirIsUnderrated. I am in the United States and welcome feedback from everyone, regardless of their country.

[AirIsUnderrated in reply to LL46]

I'm in the UK where everything has been rather different from the US. Is there a form to fill in or do you just want general thoughts? 😊

[LL46 in reply to AirIsUnderrated]

No forms. I'm just looking for general thoughts/experiences.

[AirIsUnderrated in reply to LL46]

👍

I'm white British. We began lockdown in the UK on March 23rd. No testing was available except for hospital patients until the end of April when it was expanded to healthcare staff. Testing for the general population was rolled out successfully in May, for people showing symptoms and people who had been exposed. There was a blip in September when the schools and universities went back and the testing service got overwhelmed. Testing is now only for those with symptoms, I believe.

Antibody tests were made available in June to NHS staff and people who had tested positive only. Things went very quiet after that and I'm not sure whether they are still available.

Personal experience: I had something that may have been Covid at the end of March. The advice then was to isolate the household and only contact the NHS if you had severe symptoms. I didn't: I had low-grade fever for 3 weeks and breathlessness that continued while we played meds roulette until starting Fostair at the 6.5 month mark. Since March I have had 17 telephone consultations with 7 different clinicians, one chest x-ray, one physical examination/blood test/other test and 8 different prescription items. I've had 1 Covid test and 1 antibody test. I have felt as if I've had to fight for almost all of it.

Until March I was a healthy NHS worker with no underlying health conditions, and taking no meds.

[LL46 in reply to AirIsUnderrated]

Thank you for sharing your experience. It sounds like it was a long, tedious process. I'm glad you were able to advocate for yourself and hope you continue to do so. I wish you the best of luck.