Asthma and allergy in Albania and the UK

In the first phase of the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood, a large difference in occurrence of asthma symptoms was seen between children in Albania and the UK. We did skin-prick tests with various allergens and measured peak expiratory flow rate in about 1000 children from each country. A large difference in the proportion of exercise-induced bronchial reactivity was evident between children from Albania and the UK (0·8% vs 5·4%, respectively). However, the frequency of allergic sensitisation was closely similar (15·0% vs 17·8%, respectively). These results suggest that large geographical variations in asthma prevalence can arise without differences in frequency of atopy.