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Allergy
Section: Allergology
According to statistics, every fifth person on the Earth suffers from one or another type of allergy. True, doctors console: its symptoms are not always to show up during whole life. For example, the person, which has allergy on hair of duck-billed platypus, can never come to Australia, home of this animals.
So, what do we mean when we say “allergy”. Allergy is a high level of sensitivity to substances, factors, temperature modes etc., which can be the reason of inadequate reactions of an organism on the actions of pathogenic organism. Moreover, the person, who does not suffer from allergy, will have quite normal reaction on this pathogenic organism. The substance defiant such reactions is called allergen.
The term “allergy” was offered in 1906 by Cleamance Perke, an Austrian pediatrician. Approximately during same time strong distribution of an allergy and its active studying by leading experts in the field of medicine had led to the appearance of science called allergology.
The most widespread allergens are hair of pets, pollen of plants, certain medicines, and food. Unfortunately, the full list of allergens does not exist, as well as the methods, which can be used for knowing on which substances You have an allergy or on which You have not. For this purpose it will be necessary to contact with all possible allergens in the world in laboratory conditions. But this is unreal.
There are different degrees of danger caused by an allergy. For example, if the person has an allergy on certain smell, let it be smell of roses, than the person, who happened to be in rose-garden (or passed near the bush of roses), starts to sneeze, and he has symptoms of cold. And if the person has an allergy on bites of wasps, and what is worse, on the bites of bees (because of their possible congestion), in case of mass bites of these insects, will have high temperature, can lose consciousnesses or even die! An allergy on food makes no less harm, especially, if there is an allergy on ingredient, but not on certain produce (dairy produce, honey, some sorts of coffee).
Notwithstanding, that the first cases of allergy had been fixed long time ago, this phenomenon reached its wide spreading only at 70th of XX century. The process of industrialization, which had considerably worsened ecological condition on the whole planet, in the same way, assisted the development of allergic process among the population. In areas with a high level of industrialization 25% of inhabitants can have an allergy.
Moreover, in such case an allergy can cause complications and turn into bronchial asthma, constant rhinitis and dermatitis. Especially physicians are worried by diseases of respiratory tract, particularly asthmas. As long as allergens, which are in environment, cause this disease among 80% of children of preschool and school age, who suffers from asthma! The index of adult population, which suffers from bronchial asthma caused by the acute allergy, is hardly less and makes 50%, but as we can see, the number is not encouraging.
Notwithstanding the modern development of medicine and science in general, but scientists cannot give an unequivocal answer on question of “Why does allergy develops in such fast rate?” The most upright versions are connected with human activities. As long as allergy is an immunological disease and the ecology has a negative influence on the immune system of human. It is very hard to control the situation also because of distorted statistics, which displays only the quantity of people, who had turned to help to doctors.
Among the most perspective methods of medical treatment it is possible to assign the method of vaccination. Exactly this method becomes salvage for millions of people, though there is no guaranty of positive result in every case. Moreover, we know that nowadays there is no universal medicine, which can make complete recovery from allergy in the whole world! But scientists of USA, France, Denmark, Great Britain etc. successfully work on generation of such drugs.
Probably in the nearest future such moment will come, when people, who suffer from allergy, will be able to stroll calmly over the streets, notwithstanding poplar fluff and pollen of ambrosia. With the invention of universal allergy medicine millions of pets will find their new owners, and bronchial asthma will not prevent people to breathe in a full breast!