Loyola Medicine Allergy Count Resumes Weekday Reports on April 1
March 31, 2021
Categories: Allergy & Immunology
Tags: Allergy Count, Allergy Immunology
MAYWOOD, IL –For more than 20 years, Loyola Medicine has provided the Chicago area with allergy counts every weekday via Twitter and telephone hotline during the allergy season. The Loyola Medicine Allergy Count will begin 2021 reporting on April 1.
Rachna Shah, MD, leads the Loyola Medicine Allergy Count. Pollen samples are gathered every weekday morning during allergy season from the roof of Gottlieb Memorial Hospital. Pollen grains and spores are collected from a cubic meter sample of air and counted under a microscope. The counts include daily numbers for mold, tree, grass and weed pollens.
"Daily allergy reports are important to our communities now more than ever in the time of COVID-19," says Dr. Shah. "When people experience allergy symptoms, they can look to our counts and identify the causes of their symptoms. It's an extra layer of security when everyone is on high alert regarding their health."
Spring allergies most often cause itchy, watery eyes and runny nose, sneezing, nasal congestion and post-nasal drip. Difficulty breathing, coughing, wheezing and/or shortness of breath also can be caused by seasonal allergies. Unlike COVID-19, seasonal allergies will not typically bring on a fever, chills, muscle pain, sore throat and loss of taste and smell.
Allergy season commonly runs from March through the first hard freeze in October. Trees reach peak allergen season from March to May, grass from May to June, and weeds and ragweed in August. Mold peaks occur in damp conditions throughout the season.
The daily report for the Loyola Medicine Allergy Count can be found on Twitter and by calling our telephone hotline: 866-4-POLLEN (866-476-5536). For more information, please visit loyolamedicine.org/find-a-condition-or-service/allergy-count.
About Loyola Medicine
Loyola Medicine, a member of Trinity Health, is a nationally ranked academic, quaternary care system based in Chicago's western suburbs. The three-hospital system includes Loyola University Medical Center (LUMC), Gottlieb Memorial Hospital, MacNeal Hospital, as well as convenient locations offering primary care, specialty care and immediate care services from nearly 2,000 physicians throughout Cook, Will and DuPage counties. LUMC is a 547-licensed-bed hospital in Maywood that includes the William G. and Mary A. Ryan Center for Heart & Vascular Medicine, the Cardinal Bernardin Cancer Center, the John L. Keeley, MD, Emergency Department, a Level 1 trauma center, Illinois's largest burn center, the Nancy W. Knowles Orthopaedic Institute, a certified comprehensive stroke center, transplant center and a children’s hospital. Having delivered compassionate care for over 50 years, Loyola also trains the next generation of caregivers through its academic affiliation with Loyola University Chicago’s Stritch School of Medicine and Marcella Niehoff School of Nursing.
For more information, visit loyolamedicine.org. You can also follow Loyola Medicine on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram or X (formerly known as Twitter).
About Trinity Health
Trinity Health is one of the largest not-for-profit, faith-based health care systems in the nation. It is a family of 127,000 colleagues and more than 38,300 physicians and clinicians caring for diverse communities across 26 states. Nationally recognized for care and experience, the Trinity Health system includes 93 hospitals, 107 continuing care locations, the second largest PACE program in the country, 142 urgent care locations and many other health and well-being services. In fiscal year 2024, the Livonia, Michigan-based health system invested $1.3 billion in its communities in the form of charity care and other community benefit programs. For more information, visit us at www.trinity-health.org, or follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, and X (formerly known as Twitter).