Allergy busters!

[Albie]

It seems that science has now found a way to alleviate allergies in people. What a Godsend this will be, but I dare say it will be expensive and will not be available to the public for some time (findings will be made available next year). And if starts out on prescription (which I have no doubt it will), I am not so sure that the NHS here in the UK will readily foot the bill for all sufferers! Take these two cases for example: David Powell and Jayne Sullivan.

Why do I talk of this, well every summer I struggle badly with hay-fever symptoms and throughout the year, I suffer with house dust-mite and pet allergies. Yes, I know I have two dogs, but the problem is not with a longer haired dog, more with the short fine haired dogs (and other such animals - rabbit fur, for example). I have been told many a time that I will grow out of these allergies but, alas, I still suffer. The situation will be that I will actually grow out of these in time for the drug to be made available - how ironic will that be. Nevertheless, younger allergy sufferers will benefit.

The Swiss-based company trailing this drug is Cytos Biotechnology and their media release in PDF format, for those interested, can be found here.

 

[IronDuke]

You have my sympathies, Albie. This summer I discovered I was allergic to fabric softener. My mother was using it when she did laundry, so it was on everything I and my family wore.
The thing was that it took my about 5 weeks to figure out what was causing it; five damn weeks of misery. Every morning, I'd cough, sneeze, my nose would run, my eyes would be sore, and my head would hurt. I have been very (life-threateningly) sick before, but it seemed like nothing in comparison to this. I just felt so miserable.

Hopefully this breakthrough is for real; I know there are much worse things plagueing the world (AIDS, cancer, influenza, etc) but this is still good.