ZURICH, April 16, 2015 /PRNewswire/ --
Allergy: an increasing burden for all Europeans
Allergic diseases affect the lives of more than one billion people worldwide. The epidemic has been on the rise in the last 60 years and the prevalence of allergic diseases is expected to reach up to 4 billion by the 2050s, thus confronting society with major effects on macroeconomics as a consequence of huge direct and indirect costs due to healthcare, loss of productivity and patient absenteeism. Today, more than 150 million Europeans suffer from chronic allergic diseases and the current prediction is that by 2025 half of the entire EU population will be affected.
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Up to 20% of patients with allergies live with a severe debilitating form of their condition, struggling daily with the fear of a possible asthma attack or even death from a severe allergic reaction such as an anaphylactic shock. The avoidable indirect costs of failure to properly treat allergy in the EU is estimated to range between 55 and 151 billion Euro/year.
In June 2014, EAACI launched an ongoing European level allergy awareness campaign called "Beware of Allergy", divided into various waves focusing on different allergic diseases: asthma (Autumn 2014), food allergy and anaphylaxis (Winter 2015), and allergic rhinitis and allergen immunotherapy (Spring 2015).
Also in June 2014, EAACI launched the Global Atlas of Allergy written by 183 leading scientists from all over the world, which is currently being translated into several languages including Chinese and Spanish.
In 2015, EAACI released the European Advocacy Manifesto, that proposes a series of evidence-based recommendations to tackle the burden of allergy in Europe, foster allergy research and help strengthen allergology as a medical specialty.
As a further step towards political recognition of the burden of allergic diseases, the first meeting of the European Parliament Interest Group on Allergy and Asthma took place on 25 March 2015. Under the leadership of MEP Sirpa Pietikäinen (Finland), the Interest Group on Allergy and Asthma aims to give a clearer policy response to address allergy and asthma at an EU level.
EAACI has also developed a Health Economics Task Force to deal specifically with issues related to the efficiency, effectiveness and value of interventions in the management of allergic diseases.
Full press release: https://hkstrategies.egnyte.com/fl/ttqvRE6KjQ
More information:
Claudie Lacharite - EAACI Communications Manager claudie.lacharite@eaaci.org
References
- Global Atlas of Allergy
- EAACI Advocacy Manifesto
- http://www.bewareofallergy.com
- http://www.eaaci.org
