An estimated one in five children in the UAE is suffering from asthma, while a further 40 per cent are prone to allergic rhinitis caused mainly by pollen, mould spores and dust mite allergens in the air, said an expert.

Dr Bassam Mahboub, vice president of the Emirates Allergy & Respiratory Society (EARS), and associate professor at Sharjah University, added that key triggers for asthma and breathing allergies in the UAE are mould, pollen and dust mite allergens.

Coughs, colds, sneezing, watery eyes and nasal congestion are commonly caused by airborne allergens and sufferers are often unaware that these are symptoms of allergies, he said.

Dr Mahboub added that if either parent suffered from asthma or breathing allergies, then children were more likely to be susceptible, and that from research conducted across the Gulf and Near East, 52 per cent of children who suffered from asthma missed school in the preceding year.

Mihir Patel, CEO of Amancorp, exclusive regional distributors for Airfree air purifiers, a European brand globally renowned for its simple, effective and maintenance-free air purification technology, said: “As residents of the Gulf, we suffer a disproportionately higher rate of breathing allergies and asthma according to the INA, a World Health Organisation initiative.

“Interestingly, UAE research suggests that age (the younger the person), sex (females more than males), ethnicity (Arabs more than other races) and education levels (the more educated) all play a part in increasing one’s vulnerability to breathing allergies.”

“Improved indoor air quality can improve health, concentration, productivity and sleep, and research conducted by the International Centre for Indoor environment & Energy (ICIEE) showed up to 35 per cent improvement in mental arithmetic, comprehension and problem solving ability in school children with an improvement in indoor air quality,” Patel said.

Patel said that in the present climate, and given the fact that we take in as much as 10,000 litres of air per day, the need to improve Indoor Air Quality is becoming increasingly apparent and important.

Reduction in ambient fine particulate air pollution in the US in the last 30 years has resulted in an increase in life expectancy by as much as 15 per cent, and it is clear today that we need to invest in air purifiers to improve the general quality of our lives.

World Asthma Day, which will be commemorated on May 3, is an annual awareness-raising event organized by the Global Initiative for asthma (GINA), a collaboration between the US National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, US National Institutes of Health, and the World Health Organisation.

Expressing concern at the research finding that respiratory allergies will increase at the rate of 70 per cent in the Mena region over the next 25 years, experts have pointed out that the direct annual cost per capita for asthma and allergies in the Mena region is $500, and that research done locally indicated that instead of coming down, the incidence of asthma and breathing allergies in the UAE has significantly increased over the years. – TradeArabia News Service