Allergic rhinitis or nasal allergy is a serious disease, but has huge implications for society. A survey of Latin America and that was just presented at the World Allergy Congress that just ended in Buenos Aires, reveals some of these huge social and economic costs.
Allergies to conduct the study in Latin America (AILA, for its acronym in English) was interviewed by telephone to 1,088 adults and 458 parents of children with allergy eight Latin American countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela.
One in three adults surveyed said that in the last year lost workdays due to allergic rhinitis. In addition, academic productivity fell by 35% at the time that symptoms were more acute. Recall that worldwide there are 400 million people with allergic rhinitis.
And although worldwide loss of working hours and academic performance is not equal to that produced in Latin America, undoubtedly occur.
And if these costs are added health care costs, we concluded that the cost of allergic rhinitis around the world is immense.
To which must be added that recent studies suggest that asthma and allergic rhinitis are the same disease.
It is not surprising that the World Allergy Organization (WAO in the acronym) states that the costs generated by asthma and seasonal allergic rhinitis than those caused by tuberculosis and HIV / AIDS combined.
