Allergies: tomorrow, will we all be "victims" of pollen?

Good weather, heat and wind. Ideal conditions for an explosion of pollen allergies. For several weeks now, general practitioners have seen many patients in the midst of a crisis arriving in their offices. A wave they describe as “violent”. But for Pr. Frédéric de Blay, president of the French Federation of Allergology (FFAL), the most important thing is not the height of the epidemic peak. This varies greatly from year to year. To appreciate the situation, it is better to look at the trend. “With allergic diseases, we are facing a silent epidemic. 30% of French people are already affected and we could reach half the population in twenty years to come”. Like most of his colleagues, the doctor observes an increase in problematic cases over time. Children, for example, suffer more often from food allergies or have more asthma.

Dr Isabelle Bossé, president of the Syndical Français des Allergologues (SYFAL), confirms this development. “Overall, more and more people are suffering from symptoms which tend to get worse over time. Ten or fifteen years ago, a true allergy to birch or grass pollen remained relatively rare in children. Now, Young people aged seven or eight come in droves to consult. Worse, we even see children aged three or four who are victims of allergies. This means that it only took a handful of seasons to raise their awareness. In the past , yet it took seven or eight years”.

So something has changed in the realm of allergies. It’s hard to pinpoint a single explanation. “There is apparently a strong link between urban life and abnormal immune reactions,” notes Frédéric de Blay. In this association, pollution plays an important role. For example, pollutants present in the city alter the structure of pollen, allowing allergenic proteins to be released more easily and penetrate deeper into our airways.

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Several factors come into play

However, allergies are the result of multiple factors. “They depend on our indoor and outdoor environment, our exposure to allergens or our phenotype,” explains Isabelle Bossé. Added to this are other more general elements such as global warming, where the multiple doses of antibiotic therapy in children. “As the climate changes, the duration of exposure to pollination lengthens, continues the scientist. Today it begins between eight and ten days earlier for certain species and ends between fifteen days and three weeks later. A huge departure from what we were experiencing in the past.”

Frédéric de Blay tempers: “the effects of climate change are not felt everywhere. For example, in Strasbourg, we cannot really say that the pollination periods have lengthened over the last twenty years”. Quite the opposite of Nantes where the evidence is accumulating. As a general rule, patients first become sensitive to pollen before declaring food allergies a few years later. In Europe, a significant proportion of allergies to birch pollen s are accompanied by an allergy to apple.Thanks to advances in molecular medicine, scientists know more and more about the proteins involved in this type of association.

Allergic to their home

But inexorably, the list of irritating substances grows longer. More and more young children are becoming intolerant to peanuts or hazelnuts. “For two or three years, we have started to describe allergies to buffalo milk used in mozzarella. Cannabis, whose consumption is increasing, also enters the category of emerging allergens”, notes Isabelle Bossé. More intriguingly, some citizens become allergic… to their house! When they enter inside, they feel, for example, burning in the bronchi. “In the United States, indoor environment consultants offer their services to these helpless people. They give them, for example, ideas to reduce their exposure to dust mites.

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In France, this profession is not recognised”, regrets Frédéric de Blay. However, obtaining a real status figures prominently in the list of proposals selected for the five-year plan to fight against allergic diseases. Presented recently at the government, it also aims to reduce waiting times for patients (six months on average), to strengthen the offer of care throughout the territory or to ensure better management of treatment for desensitization.”We still have a long way to go,” says Professor de Blay. “At European level, France is rather in the middle of the table, confirms Isabelle Bossé. Germany or the United Kingdom are still slow to take the bull by the horns. On the other hand, some Nordic countries have already launched with their plan ten years ago, successfully”. What make many French patients cough.