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This Tuesday, March 22 marks the 16th French Allergy Day, organized by the Asthma and Allergies association. This year, she has decided to focus on the still too underestimated impact of allergies on daily life.
21 million. This is the number of people suffering from allergies in France or being directly affected by the pathology by having an allergic relative, according to a survey organized by Ifop for the Asthma and Allergy association. That is about a third of the French. However, it remains a pathology that is still poorly understood. And it is on this aspect that the association wishes to insist on this dedicated day.
A number of people with allergies that has doubled in 20 years!
Allergy is a disease that is still poorly recognized. According to figures put forward by the association, “only 28% of French people recognize that it is a daily handicap“. Allergy is also often underestimated and people who suffer from it spend an average of seven years in therapeutic wandering before being diagnosed with their pathology.
However, the figures for allergies are exploding: there has been a doubling of cases in 20 years, with one in three people born after 1980 being allergic and the World Health Organization even estimates that “50% of the world’s population will be affected by at least one allergy by 2050″.
A diagnosis still too late
Very often, the allergy is diagnosed late. The French tend to minimize the importance of a diagnosis and there are 7 years of therapeutic wandering between the first attack and the consultation with an allergist. The causes impacting the allergy are also poorly known, whereas it is by knowing it and treating it well that we avoid its aggravation.
Consult an allergist online
Treating the disease to improve the quality of life of patients
Allergy is a hypersensitivity of the body to allergens present in the environment, which cause the immune system of some people to react when they are normally harmless.
The allergy can have consequences on daily life such as giving up practicing a sport, certain hobbies or going to work. Asthma, for example, which is very often caused by an allergy, causes 230,000 days of hospitalization per year. For a better quality of life, the allergic person must consult an allergist to diagnose their allergy and begin effective treatment.
Desensitization, or allergen immunotherapy, remains the only treatment that can attack the cause of the allergy.
