Seville/Madrid, (EFE).- The weather characteristics of last year, the warmest and one of the driest in history, will promote a moderate spring for those allergic to pollen in Madrid and Andalusia (Huelva, Córdoba, Jaén and Seville ), except in Extremadura and Toledo, where concentrations will be more intense.
These are the forecasts that the Spanish Society of Allergology and Clinical Immunology (Seaic) presented this Wednesday at a press conference in which it warned, however, of the impact of climate change and pollution, which are increasing allergic diseases.
Factors to which this year there is an added problem: the high presence of respiratory viruses, coinciding with the start of spring, which had not circulated in previous years.
Thus, the second wave of flu that has occurred this season “can harm” allergy sufferers because it means entering this period with “hyperreactive” and inflamed mucous membranes that facilitate the entry of pollens and allergens and they feel that way more intensely. Juan José Zapata, president of the Aerobiology Committee of this society, has highlighted.
As the expert has recalled, average temperatures have risen 15 degrees on average, that is, 1.6 degrees above the normal average of recent decades, which had never happened in history; In addition, rainfall has decreased by 24%, all of which will affect the quality of life of allergy sufferers.
Up to 62 aerobiological stations
High temperatures, drought and pollution increase pollen concentrations, as well as exposure times to it and its aggressiveness, which results in longer periods of grain presence and, therefore, symptomatology and even the appearance of new pollens in areas where they were not present.
For this 2023, the State Meteorological Agency (Aemet) calculates that temperatures will be normal, with upward trends for the next three months, while rainfall will be “more or less normal” in the center and west of the peninsula, although “it is likely that it will rain much more in the Balearic Islands and the Mediterranean area.”
With these data that it extracts from Aemet, along with those provided by the 62 aerobiological stations that the Aerobiology Committee has distributed throughout the territory, Seaic makes its calculations about the spring that awaits the millions of allergy sufferers in Spain. .
It centers them on grasses because they represent 80% of allergies, followed by olive, arizónica, plantain, salsola and parietaria.
The result of all this is that it will appear moderate and “predictable” like the previous one in most of Spain, except the two provinces of Extremadura and Toledo, where the levels will be intense, with more than 7,000 grains of grasses per meter. cubic in the first two and more than 6,000 in the second.
Something softer, but still with moderate levels, will be Madrid, where the 4,000 mark will be exceeded, and Huelva, Córdoba, Jaén and Seville.
precision allergy
On the contrary, spring is expected to be mild throughout the Mediterranean coast, Aragon and the Cantabrian coast, and even more favorable in the Canary Islands and Almería, where it will hardly exceed a thousand grains.
However, experts have warned that these forecasts will depend on weather conditions, which are very difficult to predict at this time; For example, in the short term, rain is beneficial because it moistens the pollen and makes it fall to the ground, but in the long run, it favors the growth of all plants, especially grasses.
Faced with this panorama, the president of Seaic, Ignacio Dávila, has vindicated precision allergy because the patients who come to the consultation “are not usually allergic to a single pollen but are sensitized to a group of them.”
In this sense, he recalled the revolution of monoclonal antibodies, which allow acting against the allergenic molecule causing the problem and which can be identified thanks to this precision medicine.
But the experts have asked for something more, and it is the very involvement of allergy sufferers, who are invited “not to wait for the last moment” to go to the doctor and follow the daily pollen forecasts.
And also a greater commitment on the part of the city councils to reduce pollution and gas emissions, and to think twice before planting decorative trees: “Cities should not only be beautiful, but also sustainable and healthy”, Zapata has settled. EFE
