CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va – A rare allergic condition has been on the rise lately, and doctors at UVA Health ARE working to help make diagnosis easier.
Eosinophilic Esophagitis is an allergy to certain foods like dairy, wheat egg or soy.
While not life-threatening like other allergies, the condition causes chronic inflammation of the esophagus that makes it difficult to swallow properly.
EOE is thought to affect 0.05% of the population, however, due to difficulty in diagnosis there may be more people with the disease self-managing symptoms.
“So, we have a lot of emerging data to show that it may actually be very underdiagnosed,” said Dr Emily McGowan, an allergist at UVA Health. “And once we start to identify all the patients out there who may have it, I think that number is probably gonna go up.”
Treatment for EOE involves both the use of steroids and elimination diets to determine which foods trigger the inflammation.
