Finland's National Allergy Program Successfully Reduces Allergic Diseases

Introduction In Finland (population 5,5 million), a 10-year national campaign to treat allergic diseases was initiated in 2008. It was carefully planned and based on consensus among experts [1–3] because the long-term strategy of allergen avoidance had not reduced the burden or stopped the “epidemic”. New insights into immune development in modern, urban societies have challenged conventional thinking. A public health programme has now been implemented, and an avoidance strategy was replaced with a tolerance strategy [4]. This course of action was supported by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health and the National Institute for Health and Welfare. The burden and the epidemic In the early 1990s, asthma was recognised as an inflammatory condition with variable airflow limitation [5, 6]. The new paradigm emphasised first-line anti-inflammatory treatment [7], which was implemented in practice by the Finnish Asthma Programme 1994−2004. Step 1 involved cutting the disease burden for ind ... Read full article.