They are as unpleasant as much as they are widespread – up to 1.5 million Danes suffer from allergies and it is costing society dear.
Public health report figures from Sweden in 2009 show that allergy sufferers are costing society up to 20 billion kroner per year – and it is a similar situation in Denmark, according to Professor Jeanne Duus Johansen, the centre leader at the National Allergy Research Centre.
“Denmark and Sweden are very similar, and I am therefore convinced that the same is true over here,” she told Metroxpress.
READ ALSO: Commuters won't be breathing easy after latest air quality reports
Going to get worse
Part of the growing problem of costs is the current lack of focus from politicians on the situation, according to the professor.
“If there was more focus and transparency in the area, then politicians would simply know how much it was costing," she explained.
Without focusing on the problem, the costs will only increase, she warned.
READ ALSO: Scientists locate allergy genomes
50 percent with allergies by 2020
Figures from the National Institute of Public Health show that the number of allergy sufferers in Denmark has doubled in the 25 years leading up to 2013, whilst at the same time, the number of specialists in the area has dropped.
And the current figure of 1.5 million allergy sufferers is set to rise to 2.1 million within the next six years.
However, the organisation Asthma-Allergi Danmark casts doubt over the estimate.
It expects that the number will be even higher, believing that around half the population of Denmark will be suffering from allergies by the year 2020.
