Advances in Allergy.

The XI International Congress of Allergology and Clinical Immunology offers an opportunity to review recent advances in allergy, including some of the topics which are discussed in this supplement. Much remains to be done before these advances can be used for the benefit of patients. In asthma, for example, there has been a considerable unravelling of basic mechanisms, a widespread application of new methods of clinical assessment, and the introduction of many new drugs. Yet there has not been any evidence of a corresponding fall in mortality rate and the control of symptoms has proved more difficult than expected. We live in an allergy-prone world. The opportunity for each of us to develop allergic and hypersensitive reactions has increased with the development of environmental contamination, new classes of industrial and household chemicals, proliferating varieties of processed food and drink, and the widespread use of synthetic materials. The many relevant scientific observations have, however, had few clinical applications.