Putting allergy prevention to the test

Dear Reader, Around 110 years ago, the Viennese paediatrician Clemens von Pirquet coined the term “allergy“ – a relatively recent development in the long history of medical research. Since then allergies have be-come one of the most common health problems, par-ticularly during infancy. In developed countries, asthma, rhinitis, atopic dermatitis (AD) and food allergies have become widespread in epidemic pro-portions over the last few decades. But newly indus-trialised countries and developing regions are in-creasingly affected as well. Around a third of newborns are today born with an elevated risk of an allergy disease. Research into this topic has therefore considerably intensified in recent years. Countless hypotheses and studies have now shown the real complexity of the subject, and the difficulties inherent in making umbrella recommen-dations for prevention and treatment. Several past guidelines have since proven themselves to be dubious, which makes it even more important to have information about the current level of science. Over the following couple of pages I would like to give you a brief overview of discussions based on recent studies. I hope you find it useful.