How can we explain allergic disease to children? How to sensitize them personally knowing that, according to the SIAIP (Italian Society of Pediatric Immunology and Allergology), the incidence of pediatric respiratory allergies is always higher, so much so that it has registered an increase of almost 40%?
Lofarma, a leading pharmaceutical company in the diagnosis and treatment of respiratory allergic diseases, has decided to take the field alongside the children of some Italian primary schools with a social responsibility project aimed at providing children with correct information on the subject of respiratory allergies, illustrating them the main concepts and sensitizing this very important segment of the population to a correct conception of the issue.
Reverse the perception
Here then is born “An allergy as a friend”: a project conceived by Lofarma and sponsored by SIAIP aimed at the third grades of primary schools in Milan, Florence, Rome and Messina with the aim of building an integrated path in order to focus attention on the important issue of respiratory allergies in pediatric age, involving schools, children, families and pediatricians, during the academic year. 2021-2022.
An educational and at the same time playful project that, thanks to an illustrated book delivered to the schools that will join the initiative, will provide information while supporting the psychological concept “I am allergic, but I am no different from the others”, offering correct information and knowledge of reality and making it clear how to manage the disorder in the most natural and serene way possible.
“An allergy as a friend” also provides a creative contest in which children will be asked to draw their own superhero capable of fighting respiratory allergies. During the school year, on the website dedicated to the initiative (www.unallergiaperamica.com) some webinars will be organized for families in which they will take part Medical Specialists.
An allergy as a friend wants to become a real point of reference for the benefit of adults and children who, thanks to a series of materials and transversal activities, will be able to deepen everything related to respiratory allergic disease in pediatric age, learning to recognize it, manage and solve it. Given its important scientific connotation, the project is also a useful tool for pediatricians who wish to have specific information material to treat their little patients.
“An allergy as a friend is a project that is particularly close to our hearts because it involves a fundamental target of the allergic population: children. We know that respiratory allergic diseases are on the rise. For this reason we have chosen to take the field with all our experience and professionalism to guarantee to those who will be the adults of tomorrow, and their families, materials and knowledge useful for their health in the present and in the future, both in the case of allergic patients, both in the case of non-allergic people but who, in all probability, will have to face the allergy of a friend, a relative, a classmate “- said Rubens Vaglio, President of Lofarma, adding: “We are honored that SIAIP has decided to take the field alongside us by sponsoring this project with an important educational and informative value”.
“SIAIP welcomed with pleasure the invitation to sponsor and actively participate in this initiative because the involvement of schools and families is one of the main objectives of the Italian Society of Pediatric Allergy and Immunology with a view to global management, at 360 ° , of the immunoallergic pathologies of the child ”- he added Gian Luigi Marseglia – President of SIAIP.