Ragweed allergy on the rise in Europe

Thursday February 12th, 2009

People in Europe are becoming increasingly allergic to ragweed, a major cause of hay fever in North America.

Ragweed is also known as Ambrosia, and is a flowering plant from the sunflower family. Its pollen produces severe and widespread allergies, but it is hard to remove it from an area, as it is an invasive weed.

Researchers gave more than 2,000 patients in ten European countries a skin-prick-test for ragweed allergy. They found an unexpected level of allergy across the countries. More and more Europeans are likely to suffer this allergy, they warn in the journal Allergy.

The research was done by members of GA2LEN, the Global Allergy and Asthma European Network. This is a group of top European researchers specialising in allergic diseases.

Professor Torsten Zuberbier of the Charite University of Medicine in Berlin, Germany, says that ragweed is the main cause of hay fever, or allergic rhinitis, in North America but, until now, very few European regions were affected. "The prevalence of ragweed sensitisation is clearly above 2.5 per cent, the currently accepted threshold for 'high prevalence'," he said.

Sensitised people are more likely to develop an allergy to ragweed at some point. People in Hungary had the highest risk - between 58 and 60 per cent of the population were sensitised to ragweed.

"The study highlights the spreading of ambrosia pollen and the dissemination of the plant throughout Europe," Professor Zuberbier continued.

"If we consider the apparent climate change, further evolutions in regional vegetation can be expected. GA2LEN therefore calls for a pan-European surveillance system to carefully monitor trends in sensitisation patterns which might allow coordinated counter-measures."

Zuberbier, T. et al. Ragweed sensitization in Europe - GA2LEN study suggests increasing prevalence. Allergy, 2009, In Press, DOI: 10.1111/j.1398-9995.2009.01975.x

Tags: Allergies & Asthma | Europe

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