According to the latest information available from the American Lung Association, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID):

Asthma:

• Approximately 24.7 million people in the US have been diagnosed with asthma, with at least 7.7 million of them children under the age of 18.
  
  
• Asthma is the leading, serious, chronic illness among children in the US.
  
  
• Asthma accounts for 10 million absences from school each year.
  
  
• Asthma is the most common cause of childhood hospitalizations under the age of 15.
  
  
• It is estimated that 200,000 to one million children with asthma experience symptoms that are more severe due to exposure to secondhand smoke.
  
  
• About 9.3 million doctor's office visits annually result in a principal diagnosis of asthma.
  
  
• In 1999, 478,000 hospital discharges were due to asthma.
  
  
• Asthma treatment costs an estimated $3.2 billion annually for children under the age of 18.
  
  
• Asthma causes nearly three million lost workdays each year for people over age 18.

Allergy:

• Allergies affect more than 50 million people in the US.
  
  
• Pollen allergy (hay fever or allergic rhinitis) affects nearly 10 percent of the people in the US (26 million people), not including those with asthma.
  
  
• Allergies are the sixth leading cause of chronic disease in the US, costing the healthcare system $18 billion annually.
  
  
• Urticaria (hives; raised areas of reddened skin that become itchy) and angioedema (swelling of body part and/or throat tissues) together affect approximately 10 percent to 20 percent of the US population at some time in their lives.
  
  
• Chronic sinusitis, most often caused by allergies, affects approximately 38 million people in the US.
  
  
• Allergic drug reactions, commonly caused by antibiotics such as penicillin and cephalosporins, occur in 5 percent to 10 percent of all adverse drug reactions.
  
  
• Eight percent of children 6 years old or younger experience food allergies. An estimated 1 percent to 2 percent of adults have food allergies.
  
  
• A severe allergic reaction known as anaphylaxis occurs in 3.3 percent of the US population as a result of insect stings. At least 40 deaths each year result from insect sting anaphylaxis.