Allergy during Corona: what you should know

Allergy during Corona
What you should know

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Every year again: In the spring, pollen is a problem for many. But there are new therapies for allergies – and Corona also has something good.

Carefree in the cowshed – How the problem could be prevented

Probably hardly anyone would have an allergy if we had all grown up with the Amish people in the USA, a religious community that lives isolated from the outside world. “There is hardly any hay fever here,” says Professor Erika von Mutius from the Institute for Allergy and Asthma Prevention at the Helmholtz Center in Munich. The doctor was able to prove that childhood on a traditionally managed farm is associated with a 50 to 70 percent lower risk of allergies. “And in that sense the best farms are those of the Amishans.”

The pediatrician also says: “Allergies are complex diseases. Many factors contribute to their development.” The disposition plays a major role – the risk of allergies in a child in previously unaffected families is zero to 15 percent, and 50 to 60 percent if the parents are affected. Numerous environmental aspects also have an impact. And contrary to what is often claimed, dirt does not make you more tolerant per se: Smoking, for example, is an allergy accelerator, affects the unborn child and, according to studies, extends into the grandchildren. The same goes for car exhaust fumes – which is one of the reasons why city children are more likely to have allergies.

Longer and harder – why complaints increase

Allergies are often referred to as the “epidemic of the 21st century”, even if the number of people affected is no longer increasing in our country. “We have reached a high, stable plateau since around the turn of the millennium,” says Erika von Mutius. In almost half of the population, antibodies can be detected against at least one allergen, i.e. a trigger, according to a study by the Robert Koch Institute – one speaks of sensitization.

About 20 percent also have complaints, which unfortunately are still increasing: hay fever is most common in adults, and neurodermatitis in children; many suffer more from year to year. Soot particles and nitrogen oxides, for example from internal combustion engines, make pollen more aggressive. In addition, plants form more allergens when they are stressed, for example due to higher temperatures, drought or air pollutants. And last but not least, climate change is making hay fever more and more a year-round problem – hazel and certain alder species now often bloom as early as Christmas.

It’s never too late – why allergies are not a question of age

When Erika Jensen-Jarolim, President of the Austrian Society for Allergology and Immunology, diagnoses an allergy in people over the age of 70, she is sometimes surprised herself – “The subject is still underestimated by older people.” But because our immune system has to remain adaptable for life, it can also be wrong for just as long and react to what is actually harmless. “But you often see early in life whether things are going in an allergic direction,” says Erika von Mutius. “Small children are often already sensitized, even if the hay fever does not break out until they are 17 or 18, which is a very typical age.” But during puberty, the chances are good that symptoms will disappear again – in almost four out of five children, allergic asthma then grows.

You can be lucky even later. “That cannot be predicted, however,” said von Mutius. “On the contrary, there can be more and more allergies, such as food first, then house dust, then animals and at some point pollen.” Erika Jensen-Jarolim advises: “It is never too late for an allergy diagnosis, even if other chronic diseases are often in the foreground in old age. If you know what you have, you can deal with it better and avoid allergens, for example.”

Corona and allergies – what impact the pandemic is having

“Children of preschool age in particular suffer less from their asthma because the corona measures mean that they have fewer infections overall,” says Erika von Mutius. Many of her little patients are doing better than ever before. But couldn’t it also be that the immune system is a little lacking in training? “It certainly has an effect on children. The younger they are, the greater it is,” says Professor Monika Brunner-Weinzierl from the University Children’s Clinic at Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg. “Up to 17 infections a year are normal for a daycare child. Of course you don’t have to take them all with you, but they are also good for the immune system. We know that children who go to daycare have fewer allergies later on. ” It remains to be seen whether the measures to contain the pandemic will actually change the immunological course in the long term. “It will definitely be exciting to see that over the next few years,” says von Mutius.

What we already know with regard to Covid-19: Contrary to what was initially feared, people with asthma do not seem to have a higher risk of a severe course. And: The pollen count makes infection with the virus more likely, according to a study by the Technical University of Munich – even among non-allergy sufferers. Effective protection: dust filter masks that keep pollen and viruses away.

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BRIGITTE 10/2021
Brigitte