Major European allergy conference to take place in Cork

James Cox

The European Academy of Allergy & Clinical Immunology (EAACI) Allergy School will take place in Cork for the first time from September 9th to 11th.

The event is focused on 'putting nutrition at the forefront of prevention and treatment of allergies and asthma'.

This is a global event where health care professionals and scientists, including paediatricians, allergists, immunologists, GPs, nurses and dieticians from 30 different countries are coming to Cork to engage on the latest advances in nutrition and allergy care.

Experts will also decide on the best way forward to counter the dramatic increase in allergies and asthma worldwide.

More than 30 per cent of children born today will develop an allergy, while hundreds of millions of people globally suffer from asthma.

This conference will be chaired by APC Microbiome Ireland (APC) SFI Research Centre principal investigator Liam O’Mahony.

Mr O'Mahony is a Professor of Immunology at the Deptartment of Medicine and School of Microbiology, University College Cork (UCC).

The event will be co-chaired by Dr Nonhlanhla Lunjani also from APC at UCC, and Professor Carina Venter, University of Colorado, USA.

Specific session topics covered at this year’s Allergy School include ‘Allergy: Stopping a global epidemic', ‘The future of nutrition in the clinic’ and ‘Allergy diet facts, fads and fiction'.

Prof O’Mahony said: “We have known for some time that nutritional factors play a role in immune system effectiveness and that tailored dietary interventions are routinely prescribed for patients in critical care settings and in those with nutritional deficiencies. However, this approach is yet to be sufficiently embraced in other areas to bolster immune health and to prevent or treat specific immune-mediated diseases.

“While there has been a recent explosion of interest in understanding how dietary habits impact chronic immune-mediated disorders and responses to infections, the mounting research still needs to be integrated into evidence-based practice recommendations and guidelines.

"This 'complicated tango' between nutrients, microbiome, epithelial barriers, metabolism, and the immune system is key to our understanding of the origins of chronic immune-mediated diseases, such as allergies, and appropriately targeted dietary modifications will be crucial for future disease prevention and for disease treatment.”