Chronic respiratory diseases, such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, kill more than 4 million people every year, and affect hundreds of milli

Annotation In the western world, the prevalence of allergy and asthma has increased two- to threefold over the last 40 years and has reached epidemic proportion

Over the past 20 years, public concerns have grown in response to the apparent rising prevalence of food allergy and related atopic conditions, such as eczema.