HERSHEY – Spring is here and nature is full of life again.
The air is filled with fresh scents of blossoms, but not everybody can enjoy this especially pleasant season. Spring is the time when allergy sufferers may notice severe nose and eye symptoms, including itching, sneezing, runny and stuffy nose and watery and irritated eyes. Some individuals may also experience asthma symptoms: cough, wheezing, shortness of breath and chest tightness.
Spring allergy symptoms are caused by tree pollens that are released into the air from late March through May and are followed by grass pollens that will peak in late June or early July. Weed pollens are at their highest level in late August and September and remain in the air at levels that cause bothersome symptoms until the first hard frost. Other important allergens that could cause allergic nose and eye symptoms and trigger asthma include dust mites, cockroaches, pet hair and dander and molds that are present primarily indoors and are not limited to a particular season.
Allergic diseases and asthma have become much more common in the industrialized countries during the last 40 years. Allergy is the sixth leading cause of chronic disease in the United States and affects more than 50 million people, which is about 10 to 30 percent of adults and up to 40 percent of children. Since 1980, when asthma affected 6.8 million Americans, cases of asthma have increased more than threefold to 22 million, including 9 million children in 2005. Deaths due to asthma exceed 5,000 annually.
Allergic diseases make millions of Americans miserable, interfere with their performance at work or school and place a heavy financial burden on patients, families and the health-care system. Annually, allergic diseases account for more than $18 billion in health-care costs, in addition to loss of productivity. Likewise, more than 24 million work days and an estimated 13 million school days are missed every year due to asthma.
Successful outpatient management of allergic diseases and asthma by an allergist/immunologist can reduce the burden of allergies and asthma-related emergency department visits, hospital admissions and mortality.
While asthma and other allergic diseases have grown dramatically, the number of allergist/immunologists is projected to fall, because the number and size of training programs have decreased. In 1994, there were 85 allergy and immunology training programs in the United States, but now, there are just 71. Limited funding is cited as the primary reason for these drastic reductions, which are projected to continue unless action is taken. To keep pace with the growing demand for allergist/immunologists, training programs will need to increase the number of specialists trained by an additional 120 per year.
Patients with allergic diseases deserve the highest quality of care. To ensure that in the future a sufficient number of trained allergist/immunologists will remain available to provide care to patients who suffer from allergies and asthma, individuals can write to their U.S. representatives and senators about this pressing issue and ask them to introduce and support legislation to increase funding for Graduate Medical Education programs in allergy and immunology.