Elaine our president spoke Thursday, September 22 at the Gala of the Canadian Allergy, Asthma and Immunology Foundation (CAAIF). World Urticaria day is also a day to take the time to say thank you.
In the early 70s, I met an immunologist for the first time because I had a cold all the time between April to October. I also had asthma which became uncontrollable especially in the presence of animals.
50 years ago, it was a nightmarish half day to get tested. The oldest among you will certainly remember screening test by subcutaneous injection. Me too!! Passing this kind of test to a young child was hard for the patient and for the physician too. If research hadn't improved things, I don't want to imagine how long it would take to wait for a test today. Recently, I took a screening test. A simple blood test. What an improvement!!
I also had chronic urticarial in the 80’s. There were not many effective treatment options at that time. Today, things change. It is now access to effective treatments that is becoming an issue.
I am personally involved in urticaria day on October 1 each year. Since 2019, the Canadian Chronic Urticaria Society exists to educate, support and represent patients. We have also become member of the Global Allergy
and Airways Patients Platform (GAAPP) and UCARE, which is involved worldwide in making the voice of patients heard.
We are at an important step now. Patients and physicians must be a team for the advancement of research and also to make the messages heard loud and clear in order to promote access to effective new treatments and
knowledge about chronic urticaria and other diseases.
An evening like this one for the CAAIF is a fine example of collaboration. I thank them for the invitation and I hope with all my heart that this is the beginning of a beautiful complicity between physicians and patients.
Funding research is the guarantee of a better life for patients and we must remember that in the end it is the patient who benefits from the results.