Nasal allergies a burden in Latin America
- Megan Rauscher
- Jun 2, 2009
- 2 min read
http://www.reuters.com/article/2009/06/02/us-nasal-allergies-burden-latin-america-idUSTRE5515PR20090602
(Reuters Health) - In Latin America, nasal allergies exact a high toll on adults' day-to-day life and work productivity and on children's ability to learn in school and socialize and play sports.
The findings -- from the "Allergies in Latin America" survey released today at an ear, nose and throat conference in Sao Paulo, Brazil -- largely mirror findings on the burdensome nature of nasal allergies in the US, Europe and other parts of the world, according to Dr. Michael S. Blaiss, of the University of Tennessee, Memphis, who presented the data.
"We have pretty good Asian data on allergies, a lot of European and US data, and now we have Latin America data, which really parallels what we have seen in the rest of the world, that nasal allergies really do have a negative impact throughout the world in people who suffer from this condition," he told Reuters Health.
For the survey, interviews were conducted with 1088 adults and 458 children suffering from nasal allergies across eight Latin American countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Columbia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela.
Nearly half of the adults surveyed felt that nasal allergies hampered family and social activities and their ability to exercise; a third said they failed to get a good night's sleep during allergy season and reported feeling tired and irritable due to their allergies. When their symptoms were at their worst, nearly half of adults interviewed said their productivity at work suffered and 66 percent said their current allergy medicine was not effective.
"Unlike what we saw in the US, where most patients complained of year-round allergy symptoms, in Latin America, most of the patients had seasonal allergy symptoms," Blaiss commented.
"The most common and bothersome symptom in Latin America was nasal congestion, which is exactly what we saw in the US. Also, a high percentage in Latin America suffers from headache and cough, which mirrors the US," he added.
Among children in Latin America with nasal allergies, half said their symptoms interrupted their school work causing them to fall behind and 56 percent said their allergies limit their ability to play sports.
Fifty-three percent of children interviewed said they were unable to cope without medication, yet 45 percent said their allergy medicine did not work.
"What really surprised me about how much was identical, especially when we got into treatments and quality of life, was that this condition impacts people in Latin America as bad as we saw in the United States," Blaiss said.
The release of the Allergies in Latin America survey coincides with the launch of a new nasal allergy spray in Latin America called Omnaris. Nycomed Pharmaceuticals Company, which markets the spray, sponsored the survey.
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