The world-wide increase in allergy is the consequence of drastic changes in
people’s lifestyles, living environments (both indoors and outdoors) and food. The
allergy problem has become an important health issue in the past two decades, and
valuable knowledge and strategies regarding prevention have been fully developed
yet over this period. In China, the economy is growing at a very high speed.
Currently, asthma, allergic skin diseases and several forms of food allergy are
major recognized health problems. Although there are no exact national data to
enable understanding of the prevalence of allergic diseases currently available,
there is, non-the-less, a body of evidence available to suggest that the incidence of
allergic disease is increasing. Allergy is caused by multiple factors, so prevention
strategies should be based on data derived from medical, food and agricultural,
environment-related, and consumer-related research, and should address human
genetic and physiological/immunological as well as environmental aspects of
allergic disease development and management. In addition, health organizations,
food and pharmaceutical industries, and governmental authorities should be
supplied with the relevant information. Preventing and managing allergy requires
the simultaneous development of multidisciplinary and integrated strategies
involving researches from medical, food, environment and societal approaches.
Allergic disease should be researched from the perspective of the gene to
molecular biology, cell biology, histopathology, symptomology, and social and
environmental sciences. Impact on quality of life should also be considered. The
prevention and treatment of allergy requires an interdisciplinary research strategy