The GAAPP (Global Allergy and Asthma Patient Platform) is a newly formed international initiative aimed to efficiently fight the rapidly proliferating diseases of asthma and allergies, and to ease management of the diseases for patients. It was founded in Istanbul, Turkey and its registered office is in Vienna, Austria (EU).

The GAAPP is an umbrella organization to cross-link patient self-help and patient initiatives worldwide. Its objective is to share expertise, coordinate campaigns for increased public awareness and organize support programs for patients in underprivileged countries.

GAAP President Dr. Natalio Salmún (AR): Already members from more than 20 countries

"Patient initiatives in more than 20 countries on all continents have already joined our platform. We expect this figure to multiply in the next few months", says Argentine allergist Dr. Natalio Salmún, the first president of the GAAPP. "As a global network, we will be able to make the patients' voice and their needs much better heard by decision-makers in politics and healthcare."

Asthma and allergies rank among the most troublesome chronic diseases. They significantly decrease quality of life and entail huge socioeconomic costs due to healthcare expenses, lost work days and premature death. In recent decades, they have increased in prevalence at a faster rate than all other categories of disease. In Western Europe alone, the prevalence of asthma has doubled in the last ten years and in some countries now exceeds ten per cent of the adult population. Sharp increases are also seen in formerly low to middle income countries that are moving toward a more Western-like lifestyle. (Source: European Lung White Book, issued by the European Respiratory Society ERS)

No less dramatic figures apply to allergic diseases, above all to allergic rhinitis, conjunctivitis and rhino-sinusitis, which affect 10 to 30 percent of the adult population and already up to 40 percent of children. Worldwide increases in frequency are also observed in other allergic syndromes such as atopic eczema (neurodermatitis; the most common chronic inflammatory disease of the skin), food allergies (220 to 250 million people affected), urticaria (nettle rash) and occupational allergies, also responsible for 15 percent of asthma among adults. (Source: White Book on Allergy, issued by the World Allergy Organization WAO).

GAAPP Treasurer Otto Spranger (A): Global platform for patients' rights and empowerment

"These facts underline the importance of a global network for the rights and needs of asthma and allergy patients," Otto Spranger said as spokesman of the Austrian respiratory patients' organization "Lungenunion" and treasurer of the GAAPP. "Our objectives are comprehensive. Some examples: We foster cooperation with governmental and healthcare organizations to minimize the impact of allergies and asthma and want to establish the GAAPP as an equal partner of decision-makers. We help to set up patients' organizations in emerging countries and motivate patients to take an active role in managing their disease (self-empowerment). We fight for the provision of best practice therapies worldwide and for direct support of patients in underprivileged countries but also for the right of allergy and asthma patients to live in unpolluted air."

GAAPP director Dr. Antje-H. Fink-Wagner (G): Initial projects already in the starting blocks

The first projects of the new global platform are already in the starting blocks. "The first will be athletic games for children with asthma," Antje H. Fink-Wagner explained. She is project officer of the European Federation of Allergy and Airways Diseases Patients' Associations (EFA) and director of the GAAPP. "They will be carried out in the Austrian province of Salzburg in June 2012. Two further projects involve the foundation of a patients' organization in India and care parcels for patients in countries with less than a minimum living wage. The parcels will contain basic treatment equipment, medication for at least six months and information on how to control the disease. We will soon commence negotiations with the industry, which we need as partners and sponsors."

Source
Global Allergy and Asthma Patient Platform