How serious of allergies in Hong Kong?

(Source: SCMP - Hong Kong has a serious lack of allergy specialists: journal)

There are more and more people suffering with allergies in Hong Kong nowadays. The allergy is more popular in children.Allergy is the inflammatory response of our immune system towards normally harmless substances in the environment.

Hong Kong statistics on epidemiology has revealed that allergy may be a chronic disease that most people have:

30% of children had nasal allergy

7-10% of them had asthma

5% of them had eczema

5% of them had food allergy

Many people believe that only those who are not healthy will suffer from allergies, that skin allergy is contagious, and that eating a little of the wrong food will not trigger food allergy… All these are misconceptions. Allergy can bring inconvenience and frustrations; it may also lead to other complications, which can be fatal in severe cases. It is a disease that should not be overlooked.

A desensitization treatment involves gradually injecting larger and larger doses of allergens (eggs, in Julian Ngai’s case) until the person no longer has a reaction.

The Journal explains that only four public hospitals (including Queen Mary) have clinics for food and drug allergies, but they cater to child patients only. There are two full-time and four part-time staff members at Queen Mary’s allergy clinic.

The overall ratio is about one allergy specialist, or allergist, for every 1.46 million people in Hong Kong, according to the journal authors. Comparing that to numbers from the World Allergy Organisation, that puts Hong Kong well behind other developed countries like Japan and Australia.