The European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (EAACI) Congress will be held in London, United Kingdom from 6 to 10 June. The annual meeting will start with a state-of-the-art event on Saturday, 6th June 2020 dedicated to Patient Outreach and Public Engagement entitled “The Allergy Epidemic: time for change to make lives better” organised in partnership with the British Society of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (BSACI).
The key focus of this event is to raise awareness of the allergy epidemic, and unmet needs in food allergy & anaphylaxis, allergy prevention and cure, the impact of pollution and asthma management the United Kingdom, all centred around the theme ‘Prevention is Better than Cure.’ The interactive debate symposia will be organised into three thematic sessions with presentations by world allergy experts. The sessions will be followed by an interactive debate involving key opinion leaders, health care professionals, patient representative, policymakers (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), Food Standards Agency (FSA), National Health Service (NHS) England) and members of the public.
More recently, the devastating deaths caused by fatal food anaphylaxis in the UK have emphasised the necessity of better education and policy changes surrounding food allergy; thus, the first symposium is entitled ‘Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis: How to save a life!’ We will address current worries for patients, parents, families, eating establishments, schools, aviation authorities and how we can work with parliament to change current policy surrounding food labelling, inflight and at school food allergy management.
With the rapid advancements in allergen immunotherapy as a successful treatment option for allergic patients, the ability to move towards prevention and cure is finally within our reach. The following symposium will centre around the theme “Prevention is better than Cure.’ We aim to increase awareness across different aspects of society including parliament, patients, families, education and schools, discuss the European guidelines and challenges at the BSACI Standard of Care Committee (SOCC), the National Allergy Strategy Group (NASG) and NICE in implementation of prevention, oral immunotherapy and immunotherapy for the inhalant allergens and to increase awareness surrounding the impact of peanut and inhalant allergy, available prevention and treatment strategies across different aspects of society, including, patients, families, primary care physicians, education.
As we continuously become aware of the significant impact of pollution and poor air quality, it is pertinent that we focus on the effects of the asthmatic population in the UK. The final symposium will focus on ‘Conquering Asthma in 2020.’ We will discuss the current dilemmas in maintaining healthy lungs in not so clean air and the tragic impact it had on one family, as we increase awareness across different parts of society, including patients, families, educations and school, illustrate the impact of severe asthma and highlight the current use of educational tools as a source of prevention. The EAACI asthma management guidelines will be launched at this session.
Throughout the entire day, from 11:00 to 17:00, we will also have an ongoing interactive event “Allergy Epidemic- Meet the experts” to complement the patient engagement and outreach activities. This interactive event aims to provide allergy patients and members of the public access to world-class medical expertise and materials via the EAACI Congress platform. This is the ideal opportunity to delve into a hands-on allergy experience, testing out novel diagnostic and treatment techniques and current advances in the field allergy. By building a common platform for the public and Congress attendees alike who will discover the modern world of allergy and the actions, we are taking to shift the paradigm of current allergy and asthma research to bridge innovation. Details on how the public can register for the day will be announced shortly.
BSACI Vision Interview from ITN Productions on Vimeo.