Allergies – a burden not only for the individuals suffering from it, but also for our health system
Allergies weren’t always a huge health problem. 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.
More than 150 million Europeans suffer from allergies
The study sais, that up to 20 percent of patients with allergies live with a severe debilitating form of their condition, and struggle daily with the fear of a possible asthma attack, anaphylactic shock, or even death from an allergic reaction.
Allergies, however, weren’t always such a huge health problem as they are today. At the beginning of the 20th ‘century, allergy was seen as a rare disease. Only in the last few decades there has been a dramatic increase in disease burden. 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.
The EAACI furthermore points out, that as well as being devastating for individuals who face a relentless loss in productivity and impairment of their quality of life, dealing with these patients imposes a significant cost on national health systems. The avoidable indirect costs of failure to properly treat allergy in the EU are estimated to range between 55 and 151 billion Euro per annum.
