Allergies a major threat to regional economy

Based on an economic costs study released today at the Middle East-Asia Allergy Asthma Immunology Congress (MEAAAIC), Professor Ruby Pawankar, Treasurer of the World Allergy Organisation and Chair of the Dubai event says allergies affect, on average, one-in-eight people across the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region.

"Although precise costs for the Mena region are not well documented. Based on the total per-patient costs including productivity costs for asthma alone in Asia Pacific, the estimated cost in the Mena region for asthma and rhinitis alone could be over $2.5bn per year in direct medical costs, lost productivity, absenteeism and lower employment."

said Professor Pawankar,

According to Prof Pawankar, another $2bn can be added to this cost if a dollar value is placed on loss of well-being and premature death. "For the 50 million people affected by allergies, the greatest financial burden falls on young working adults and their children, who end up paying half the associated costs," warned Prof Pawankar.

Promoting the speciality of allergy in Asia Pacific and beyond, Prof Pawankar, Chair of the forthcoming Middle East-Asia Allergy Asthma Immunology Congress (MEAAIC) to take place in Dubai from 26th to 29th March 2009, the first ever internationally-developed allergy/immunology meeting in the Middle East-Gulf region, is determined to put allergies on the national agenda.

"Unless we intervene now, hay fever, eczema, food allergy and potentially life-threatening anaphylaxis will mean that by 2050 one in four people in the Mena area will suffer allergies, and there will be a massive 70% increase in the number of individuals affected."

The staggering figures were extrapolated from The Asthma Insights and Reality in Asia-Pacific survey of urban centers in eight countries in the Asia-Pacific region. It shows that annual costs of treating asthma and allergic rhinitis - both direct costs (hospitalization, medications) and indirect costs (time lost from work, premature death) - are substantial and represent an even heavier burden in societies with emerging economies, such as those in the Middle East and North Africa.

Annual per-patient direct costs from allergies ranged from $108 in Malaysia to US$1010 in Hong Kong, for example. Total per-patient costs, including productivity costs, ranged from US$184 in Vietnam to US$1189 in Hong Kong.

Urgent care costs were 18% to 90% of the total per-patient direct costs. The economic burden in the Asia-Pacific region was higher than that in the United States in relation to the per capita gross domestic product (13% in the Asia-Pacific region compared with 2% in the United States) and per capita health care spending (300% in the Asia-Pacific region compared with 12% in the United States).

Applying these figures to the Mena region - which contains approximately 50 million people affected by allergies at an estimated cost of $500 per person per year - produces the alarming total cost of $2.5bn dollars per year.

Dr. Bassam Mahboub, vice president of the UAE Respiratory Society and local chair of MEAAAIC, said: "This news will be an urgent wake-up call to MENA governments to place allergic disease higher on its healthcare priorities, to invest heavily in training and research, and ease the financial burden on allergic patients."

The State of the World Allergy Report from the World Allergy Organization also shows that without intervention, specialist services will contract 15% over the next decade at the very time that demand is increasing.

Dr. Fares Zaitoun, Co-Chair of the Congress and President of the Lebanese Society of Allergy & Immunology added:"As with the rest of the world, the impact of allergies in the Middle East is considerable with likely significant future consequences. To meet the current and future challenges of properly diagnosing, treating and preventing allergic diseases and their complications, local as well as regional and international collaboration among public and private health sectors need to be actively pursued."

The MEAAAIC is being co-organized by the Lebanese Society of Allergy and Immunology, the Asian Allergy Asthma Foundation, the Emirates Respiratory Allergy Society and the Dubai Health Authority, and supported by the Ministry of Health of UAE, and Emirates Medical Association Several world organizations like the WAO, ACAAI, AAAAI and EAACI are also partnering in this effort.

Leading experts from around the globe will lecture on hot topics on asthma, rhinitis, food allergies, occupational allergies, skin allergies. Experts from the region will also discuss the regional perspectives, thus enhancing scientific exchange and providing a platform to understand the commonalities and the diversities in the etiology, epidemiology and the disease patterns that exist in different parts of the world.