This article is a call to action for those involved with children and young people (CYP) who have (or might have) asthma. The evidence has been clear for some time that there is an identified peak in asthma attacks in mid-September, the ‘week 38’ phenomenon (Transformation partners in healthcare, 2022). However, what is often not discussed is that there is a time when we can perhaps pre-emptively act to avoid attack — and that time is now.

Winter is often seen to be the time to consider respiratory health. However, for patients who wheeze, entering autumn with healthy lungs is key to resilience to winter viruses and triggers. ‘Pre-emptive medicine’ is one of the key focuses in recent national
guidance (NHS England, 2021) and has been a pillar of best practice in both the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE, 2021) and British Thoracic Society/Scottish Collegiate Guidelines Network (BTS/SIGN, 2019) guidance for some time. It is known that many asthma deaths are avoidable, and that there are many
so-called modifiable factors that can contribute to mortality in asthma (Royal College of Physicians [RCP], 2015).