Lungs, nose and eyes should be treated simultaneously to avoid allergic hay fever from developing into asthma. Vaccination against allergy should be considered at a very early stage. This is the conclusion drawn by 37 allergy specialists together with the World Health Organization (WHO) in the ARIA Report (Allergic Rhinitis and its impact on Asthma).
The ARIA Report is a key milestone in understanding the relation between allergy, hay fever and asthma, and it also outlines WHO's recommendations for the best possible treatment.
The experts conclude that allergic hay fever is a growing global problem that affects at least 10-25% of the population. They recommend a 3-stage strategy for treatment of respiratory allergies:
- The patient must seek to avoid the substances that cause the allergic reaction
- The symptoms must be treated with symptom-relieving medication
- Immunotherapy should be considered at a very early stage since it reduces the risk of new allergies. Allergy immunotherapy also treats all of the affected organs simultaneously, using only one product, and it is the only treatment that modifies the course of the allergic disease.
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