Dear Colleagues,

On behalf of EAACI, I am proud to announce our new partnership with HAE: Learn About It, Talk About It - a peer-to-peer clinician education programme supported by ViroPharma Incorporated, in collaboration with diverse specialist groups linked to HAE. The programme aims to raise awareness of hereditary angioedema (HAE) among disparate healthcare professionals who may encounter or treat patients with the disease. Educational resources and case studies are provided on the programme website (www.letstalkhae.com) to help improve accuracy, time to diagnosis, and management of the disease. The programme also encourages discussion and collaboration among physicians.

Our decision to partner with HAE: Learn About It, Talk About It was an easy one – at EAACI, we are committed to encouraging and providing training and continuous education, and promoting good patient care in allergic and immunologic diseases, an important area of medicine.

HAE is a rare, genetic disease that that occurs in about 1 in 10,000 to 1 in 50,000 people worldwide. It is characterized by painful, disfiguring, recurrent, and potentially fatal swelling attacks that can happen anywhere in the body, including the face, throat, hands, feet, abdomen and genitalia. Attacks are unpredictable and vary in frequency, severity, and duration, and if left untreated, HAE can be dangerous and potentially fatal due to the risk of asphyxiation.

As the symptoms of HAE are often non-specific and can mimic other disorders, the underlying cause can sometimes be difficult to recognize. In fact, it is estimated that across Europe less than two-fifths of patients with HAE have received a formal diagnosis of their condition! Given these startling statistics and the potentially fatal nature of the disease, EAACI recognizes that there is a real need to increase understanding around the disease in order to advance diagnosis and management of the disease. We believe this programme will have a significant impact in achieving this.

In 2011 EAACI put in place a HAE taskforce which works towards increasing awareness of this disease and harmonization of management and research are efforts throughout Europe.

In this partnership with HAE: Learn About It, Talk About It, we look forward to reaching out to even more physicians through our targeted programme activities; the next of which will take place at our upcoming Annual Congress in Geneva, Switzerland from 16–20 June  Please visit the HAE: Learn About It, Talk About It booth onsite!

In the meantime, I encourage you to visit the programme website and help spread the word about HAE – together, we can help alleviate the burden of illness for patients!

Yours Sincerely,
Prof Marcus Maurer