Asia Pacific allergy pISSN 2233-8276 · eISSN 2233-8268 Educational & Teaching Material Review http://dx.doi.org/10.5415/apallergy.2012.2.4.275 Asia Pac Allergy 2012;2:275-279 The Finnish Allergy Programme 2008-2018 - scienti ic rat ionale and practical implementation Tari Haahtela * , Erkka Valovirta, Paula Kauppi, Erja Tommila, Kimmo Saarinen, Leena von Hertzen, Mika J. Mäkelä, and the Finnish Allergy Programme Group Skin and Allergy Hospital, Helsinki University Hospital, 00029 HUCH, Helsinki, Finland There are no nationwide, comprehensive public health programmes on allergic disorders with set goals and systematic follow-up. The Finnish initiative is based on the idea that the so called allergy epidemic in modern, urban societies is caused by inadequately developed or broken tolerance. The immune system is not trained to make the diference between danger and non-danger (allergy) or the difference between self and non-self (autoimmune diseases). The immune dysfunction leads to inappropriate inflammatory responses and clinical symptoms. The 10-year implementation programme is aimed to reduce burden of allergies both at the individual and societal levels. This is done by increasing both immunological and psychological tolerance and changing attitudes to support health instead of medicalising common and mild allergy symptoms. Severe forms of allergy are in special focus, e.g. asthma attacks are prevented proactively by improving disease control with the help of guided self-management. Networking of allergy experts with primary care doctors and nurses as well with pharmacists is the key for efective implementation. Non-governmental organizations have started a campaign to increase allergy awareness and knowledge among patients and general public. It is time to act, when allergic individuals are becoming a majority of Western populations and their numbers are in rapid increase worldwide. The irst results of the Finnish Programme indicate that allergy burden can be reduced with relatively simple means. Key words: Allergy programme; Asthma attack; Immune tolerance; Public health programme; Self-management BACKGROUND The prevalence of allergic diseases has grown in Finland during the last 50 years, similarly to many other industrialized and urbanized countries (Fig. 1). Although the origin of allergy remains unresolved, increasing body of evidence indicates that the modern man living in urban built environment is deprived from environmental protective factors (e.g. soil micro-organisms) that are fundamental for normal tolerance development. Reduced contact of people with natural, biodiverse environments may adversely affect the human commensal microbiota and its immunomodulatory capacity. Correspondence: Tari Haahtela Skin and Allergy Hospital, Helsinki University Hospital, P.O. Box 160, 00029 HUCH, Helsinki, Finland Tel: +358-9-471-86302 E-mail: tari.haahtela@hus.i Received: August 20, 2012 Accepted: September 27, 2012 This article is based on the lectures given 11.9.2012 in The First Anniversary International Symposium of Gyeonggi-Do Atopy Asthma Education Information Center, Seongnam, South Korea, and 29.9.2012 in The 9th Symposium on Speciic Allergy, Berlin, Germany. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution. Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons. org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Copyright © 2012. Asia Paciic Association of Allergy, Asthma and Clinical Immunology. http://apallergy.org