‘what am i allergic to? ’: why thousands don’t know the answer despite suffering from an allergy
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Rajesh is one of the millions of people across the world, and perhaps several tens of thousands in Chennai, who have an allergic reaction to a substance found commonly around us, but still
don’t know what that substance is. There is a simple reason for that - they just don't get it tested. “There are about 300 million people across the world who have allergic rhinitis,
and about 200 million for who it is concomitant with asthma,” points out Dr Krishna Kumar, Senior ENT Consultant and HOD, at Apollo Hospital, Chennai. Studies say that one in seven people in
Chennai could be suffering from serious allergy. “What’s unfortunate is that people choose to suffer from it but do not even know what they are allergic to,” Dr Krishna Kumar says. Rajesh
is a classic example. Till today, he doesn’t know what exactly causes the allergic reaction in him, he says. “I am 30 years old now, and somehow I have just let it go unaddressed,” he says.