September 25, 2007

experts comment on House of Lords report on allergies

The House of Lords Science and Technology Committee published its latest report on the prevalence of allergies in the UK.

Dr Claudio Nicoletti, head of gut immunology at the Institute of Food Research, said:

“This is an important initiative, the aim of which is to tackle the rapidly increasing problem of allergic diseases. However, in my opinion, the first step should be to make it clear that the number one priority at this time is to invest in basic science. Although in the past few years our knowledge of the basic immunological mechanisms involved in allergy has increased remarkably too many fundamental aspects remain obscure. Without this knowledge we will struggle to win this battle.”

Professor Stephen Holgate, allergy expert at Southampton University, said:

“This latest Allergy Report once again highlights that the UK is among those countries with the highest occurrence of allergic diseases in the world. The incidence of these diseases is also rising at an alarming rate in developing countries.

“These increases in the number of cases of asthma, rhinitis, eczema, drug and insect allergy and anaphylaxis – some of which are life-threatening – must reflect changes in our environment affecting us in early life. What these are remains largely unknown. The UK is in a strong position to undertake new research in the underlying environmental causes of allergy with a high level of expertise in both the research and clinical domains. At present, investment into the adverse effects of the environment on human health is very low. This needs to change. More investment into tackling the allergy epidemic would be a good place to start.

“The poor clinical service provision for allergy sufferers was also re-emphasised, in this 4th report in 5 years on the UK allergy crisis. The lack of specialist services means that clinical trials of new treatments are lagging behind in Britain. There are amazing new advances in understanding what goes wrong in the immune system to cause allergy with the opportunity of vaccinating against this. We are in urgent need of further research to discover selective vaccine approaches that are safe and effective. The Medical Research Council is undertaking a field review of clinical immunology soon. Allergy will be an important new area to consider.”