Allergies, also known as allergic diseases, are a number of conditions caused by hypersensitivity of the immune system to typically harmless substances in the environment. These diseases include hay fever, food allergies, atopic dermatitis, allergic asthma, and anaphylaxis. Symptoms may include red eyes, an itchy rash, sneezing, a runny nose, shortness of breath, or swelling. Food intolerances and food poisoning are separate conditions.
An allergen is a type of antigen that produces an abnormally vigorous immune response in which the immune system fights off a perceived threat that would otherwise be harmless to the body. Such reactions are called allergies.
Allergen immunotherapy, also known as desensitization or hypo-sensitization, is a medical treatment for environmental allergies, such as insect bites, and asthma. Immunotherapy involves exposing people to larger and larger amounts of allergen in an attempt to change the immune system's response.
A hypoallergenic dog breed is a dog breed that is purportedly more compatible with allergic people than are other breeds. However, prominent allergen researchers have determined that there is no basis to the claims that certain breeds are hypoallergenic and, while allergen levels vary among individual dogs, the breed is not a significant factor.
An allergist / immunologist is a physician specially trained to manage and treat allergies, asthma and the other allergic diseases. Becoming an allergist/immunologist requires completion of at least nine years of training. After completing medical school and graduating with a medical degree, a physician will then undergo three years of training in internal medicine or pediatrics. Once physicians have finished training in one of these specialties, they must pass the exam of either the American Board of Pediatrics (ABP) or the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM). Internists or pediatricians who wish to focus on the sub-specialty of allergy-immunology then complete at least an additional two years of study, called a fellowship, in an allergy/immunology training program. Allergist/immunologists who are listed as ABAI-certified have successfully passed the certifying examination of the American Board of Allergy and Immunology (ABAI), following their fellowship. In the United States physicians who hold certification by the American Board of Allergy and Immunology (ABAI) have successfully completed an accredited educational program and an evaluation process, including a secure, proctored examination to demonstrate the knowledge, skills, and experience to the provision of patient care in allergy and immunology. In the United Kingdom, allergy is a subspecialty of general medicine or pediatrics. After obtaining postgraduate exams a doctor works for several years as a specialist registrar before qualifying for the General Medical Council specialist register. Allergy services may also be delivered by immunologists. A 2003 Royal College of Physicians report presented a case for improvement of what were felt to be inadequate allergy services in the UK. In 2006, the House of Lords convened a subcommittee that reported in 2007. It concluded likewise that allergy services were insufficient to deal with what the Lords referred to as an "allergy epidemic" and its social cost; it made several other recommendations.
Thomas Alexander Evelyn Platts-Mills, FRS son of British member of parliament and barrister John Platts-Mills, is a British allergy researcher and director of the Division of Allergy and Clinical Immunology at the University of Virginia School of Medicine.
Angel M. Marchand was a Puerto Rican allergy researcher and clinician.
Asthma is a common pulmonary condition defined by chronic inflammation of respiratory tubes, tightening of respiratory smooth muscle, and episodes of bronchoconstriction. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that 1 in 11 children and 1 in 12 adults have asthma in the United States of America. According to the World Health Organization, asthma affects 235 million people worldwide. There are two major categories of asthma: allergic and non-allergic. The focus of this article will be allergic asthma. In both cases, bronchoconstriction is prominent.
The World Allergy Organization (WAO) is an international umbrella organization whose members consist of 103 regional and national allergology and clinical immunology societies from around the world. By collaborating with member societies, WAO provides direct educational outreach programs, symposia and lectureships to members in nearly 100 countries around the globe.
The British Society for Immunology, or BSI, is a UK-based organisation of British immunologists but accepts members from all countries. It was founded in November 1956 by John H. Humphrey, Robin Coombs, Bob White, and Avrion Mitchison and is one of the oldest and largest Immunology societies in the world and the largest in Europe. It publishes two scientific journals: Immunology and Clinical and Experimental Immunology.
Alfred William Frankland MBE was a British allergist and immunologist whose achievements included the popularisation of the pollen count as a piece of weather-related information to the British public, speculation regarding the effects of overly sterile living environments, and the prediction of increased levels of allergy to penicillin. He continued to work for a number of years after turning 100.
Alain L. de Weck,, was a Swiss immunologist and allergist. His main scientific contributions were in the area of characterization and prevention of drug allergy. He was the founding director of the Institute of Clinical Immunology at the University of Bern from 1971 to 1993 and authored or co-authored over 600 peer-reviewed publications. He is the recipient of a number of patents that led to commercial allergy products and services. He served as president of international scientific organizations such as the International Union of Immunological Societies (IUIS) and the International Association for Allergy and Clinical Immunology (IAACI) and was founder and later CEO of the Centre Médical des Grand-Places (CMG) company, acquired by Heska of Fort Collins in 1997. In later years he continued his research at the University of Navarra in Spain and wrote on a wide range of topics such as the distinction between science and pseudo-science, the emergence of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and comparative health care policy.
The American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI) is an American professional association of immunologists, asthma specialists and allergists. The organization is headquartered in Arlington Heights, Illinois, United States of America.
Mary Hewitt Loveless was an American physician and immunologist who specialized in allergies. She is best known for her discovery that Hymenoptera insect venom allergies could be treated with extracts of the insects' venom sacs.
Kari C. Nadeau is an American physician-scientist focused on allergy and asthma treatment at Stanford University School of Medicine. She is the Naddisy Family Foundation Professor of Allergy and the director of the Sean N Parker Center for Allergy Research at Stanford. Her team was among the first to show that high dimensional immunophenotyping of T cells involved in allergy could be used in therapies for patients. Her research has also shown that blocking antibodies in conjunction with allergen immunotherapy produced desensitization even in patients with up to five food allergens.
Rice allergy is a type of food allergy. People allergic to rice react to some rice proteins after they eat rice or breathe in rice steam. Although some reactions might lead to severe health problems, doctors can diagnose rice allergy with many methods and help allergic people to avoid reactions.
Gail Ina Greenberg Shapiro was an American pediatric allergist based in Seattle. She was a faculty member at the University of Washington School of Medicine. In 2001, she became the first democratically elected president of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology (AAAAI).
Andrii Ihorovych Kurchenko is a Ukrainian dermatologist, immunologist and allergologist, Doctor of Sciences in Medicine, Professor, head of department of Clinical Immunology and Allergology at O.Bohomolets National Medical University. He is an Expert of the Scientific and Expert Council at the State Expert Center of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine, a Fellow of the European and American Academies of Allergology and Clinical Immunology and Vice-President of the Ukrainian Society of experts in Immunology, Allergology and Immune rehabilitation (UTIAI). He is Deputy-editor of the journal "Immunology and Allergology. Science and Practice", as well as a co-author of the national textbooks "Clinical and Laboratory Immunology" (2012) and "Immunology" (2013).
Mariana Castells is a Spanish-American allergist who focuses on mast cell diseases, including mastocytosis,mast cell activation syndrome and hereditary alpha tryptasimia. Mastocytosis is a rare disease with limited treatment options. Castells works at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Massachusetts in the Department of Allergy, Rheumatology, and Immunology and at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. She is also a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.
