Asia Pacific allergy: four years of experience

Wish you and your family a Happy New Year! This issue of Asia Pacific allergy (AP Allergy) is very meaningful because it has been successfully published for full four years (16 issues so far) since the launching ceremony on November 6, 2010 and its inaugural issue release on April 30, 2011. Thank you very much for your support. AP Allergy has been recognized as an important journal in the field of allergy and clinical immunology. AP Allergy has published fifty-seven review articles from Australia (8), Finland (1), India (3), Indonesia (2), Italia (1), Japan (5), Korea (17), Malaysia (1), Singapore (9), Slovak (1), Sri Lanka (1), Sweden (1), Taiwan (4), Thailand (2), and the United Kingdom (1). A total of sixty-one original articles from Australia (6), China (1), Finland (1), India (2), Indonesia (1), Iran (2), Japan (8), Korea (15), Kuwait (1), Malaysia (1), Mexico (2), Mongolia (1), New Zealand (1), Pakistan (1), the Philippines (5), Singapore (6), Sri Lanka (1), Thailand (5), and Turkey (1) have been published. Eighteen case reports from Australia (1), Indonesia (1), Japan (1), Korea (9), Singapore (1), Sweden (1), Taiwan (1), Turkey (1), UK (1), and USA (1) have been published. Four letters have been published so far. According to Google citation index, the most frequently cited article is ‘Overview on the pathomechanisms of allergic rhinitis’ by Pawankar et al. [1], followed by ‘Irritable bowel syndrome-An inflammatory disease involving mast cells’ by Philpott et al. [2] and ‘Food allergy in Asia: how does it compare?’ by Lee et al. [3]. This issue of AP Allergy features important issues on carbohydrates as food allergens. Allergists occasionally see patients who complain that they cannot eat meat from ‘four legged animals’ because of food allergy. Red meat anaphylaxis is caused by galactose-alpha-1,3-galactose that induces cross reactivity among ‘four legged animals’. In this issue, van Nunen [4] explains mammalian meat allergy, tick anaphylaxis and their significance. Readers would enjoy the whole features of tick allergies, cetuximab allergy, and mammalian meat allergy as well as the behind stories. Soh et al. [5] explain another group of carbohydrate named galacto-oligosaccharides in commercial milk formula. Galacto-oligosaccharides are unique in that the allergen is a pure carbohydrate. Galacto-oligosaccharides induced anaphylaxis has been described in the several Asian populations including Singapore, which have brief ly been covered in AP allergy at its initial phase [3]. Readers will be impressed by the importance of carbohydrates as food allergens. For childhood asthma survey, we have ISAAC (International