Allergy to ragweed: season this year particularly “huge”

Ragweed is an extremely strong allergy trigger that causes symptoms such as runny nose, red itchy eyes, urge to sneeze, shortness of breath, etc. and very commonly asthma in allergy sufferers. From the beginning of August, the weeds (also called ragweed, ragweed or ragweed) begin to bloom, releasing their pollen into the wind.

„The plant makes its readiness and intensity to flower depending on the temperature, the light hours and the amount of rain in the weeks before flowering starts,” explains Uwe E. Berger, head of the Austrian Pollen Warning Service. There was a lot this year, so this season will be particularly strong. “At the first sign, those affected should see a doctor with expertise in allergology to clarify symptoms professionally,” Berger appealed.

East Austria especially affected
The highly adaptable and hardy plant is native to the USA. It was brought in by relief efforts after the war and spreads from the east to Austria from year to year. According to this, Vienna, Burgenland and Lower Austria are the areas with the most ragweed. However, the European ragweed is more resilient than the American plant – it clearly benefits from climate change and also tolerates more frost. Once ragweed has established itself in an area, it will spread massively. “Hot spots” are the verges of the main traffic routes. But the plants also appear in arable areas and large construction sites and rubble heaps, as well as places where birds are fed in winter.

Huge damage
The rapid spread is an increasing health and economic problem In an April 2020 study, the Center for Agriculture and Bioscience International (CABI) in Delémont, Switzerland, calculated that treating a ragweed allergy patient during the flowering and pollen season costs an average of 550 euros and consumes a total of 7.4 billion. euros per year in Europe. The annual economic burden of allergic asthma in the EU is already estimated at €151 billion.

That Ragweed-Containment is therefore on the agenda of the affected states. In Lower Austria, in collaboration with the Austrian pollen warning service, measures have been in place for several years now, so that the amount of allergen (pollen) in the air has no longer increased. Burgenland has also launched an offensive to combat the plant and was the first federal state in Austria to enact a law in July 2021 to combat and prevent its spread.

Report finds with Ragweed Finder
A central part is the “Ragweed Finder”. Finds from all over Austria can be reported with a photo via the accompanying website ragweedfinder.at and the app of the same name and eventually forwarded to the relevant state government offices in the federal states. According to the pollen warning service, the finder can on the one hand help to contain the spread of this plant and on the other hand protect people against ragweed during the main flowering period in August and September.

Berger explains: “If someone reports a field or even individual plants, they are mowed as quickly as possible.” Plants that are mowed at the right time do not come back in the same season or do not bloom – it only happens again acutely a year later the so-called annual plant.

Tips to avoid allergens
It is also recommended to remove ambrosia in private gardens. However, the pollen warning service only emphasizes by people who have been shown not to be allergic to the plant (and take precautions like wearing gloves). composting ambrosia to be pointless, the mowed or uprooted plants must instead of this sealed in a plastic bag and thrown into the hazardous waste – otherwise further spreading would be possible.

The pollen warning service advises those affected to plan outdoor activities with foresight. Allergy patients can use the website of the service request current pollen flight forecasts for Austria and Europe and also search for alternatives using pollen distribution maps. People with ragweed should therefore prefer a holiday in areas above 700 to 1000 meters above sea level. In addition to tearing out the plant and the roots, the experts also recommend not to buy cheap birdseed from Hungary, Serbia or Croatia, for example, because they often contain ambrosia seeds.

Climate change and pollution exacerbate the situation
Despite all efforts, in the future there will likely be more rather than fewer ragweed plants and thus people with allergies, according to a recently published study by MedUni Vienna, University of Vienna and BOKU Vienna forecast. The cause is climate change, which extends the flowering season of ragweed in Europe and allows the plant to spread to more northern areas. Pollution, in turn, contributes to pollen becoming more aggressive.

“Our study shows that pollen from different environments can be differently aggressive. So not only pollen concentrations in the air, but also intrinsic (internal) changes related to the environment can alter the sensitizing capacity of the pollen and cause worse allergy symptoms,” explains lead researcher and project coordinator Michelle Epstein of MedUni.

Based on the studiesThe number of people suffering from ragweed allergy in Europe is expected to increase from over 33 million today to 77 million cases by 2060.

Also imported Beetle as a beacon of hope
The hopes of the researchers and those affected are therefore pinned on an animal that was also unintentionally brought along by humans from America to Europe and Asia in 2013 and which is a natural predator of the ragweed: the four millimeter long, yellow-brown leaf beetle “Ophraella communa”. According to the aforementioned study by CABI in Switzerland, whose field trials involved Gerhard Karrer of the Institute of Botany at BOKU Vienna, it affects ragweed so severely that it produces 82 percent less pollen.

If the beetle is allowed to spread further across Europe, this ‘organic weed killer’ could save 2.3 million Europeans from burning eyes, runny noses and asthma during ragweed season, while reducing the burden on health care by €1.1 billion a year. the researchers say. calculated. They emphasize that studies to date in closely related crops, ornamentals and native endangered species would not show any significant adverse effects of “Ophraella communa”.