Asia Pacific Allergy: it's been five years!

It has been five years since the inaugural issue release on April 30, 2011 after the launching ceremony of Asia Pacific Allergy on November 2010 during the Asia Pacific Congress of Allergy, Asthma, and Clinical Immunology in Singapore. On behalf of the editorial team, wish you and your family a very Happy New Year and thank you very much for your great support.

Asia Pacific Allergy is getting recognized as an important journal in the field of allergy and clinical immunology. Asia Pacific Allergy is the official journal of Asia Pacific Association of Allergy, Asthma, and Clinical Immunology (APAAACI). Please mark your calendars now for the Joint Congress of APAAACI and Asia Pacific Association of Pediatric Allergy, Respiratory, and Immunology (APAPARI) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia during 17th–20th October, 2016 (http://www.apaaaci-kl2016.org). The main theme is "The Era of Allergy: Local and Global Insights and Intervention." Please save the date!

Asia Pacific Allergy has published 62 review articles from Australia (8), Brazil (1), Finland (1), Germany (1), India (3), Indonesia (2), Italia (1), Japan (5), Korea (19), Malaysia (1), Singapore (9), Slovak (1), Sri Lanka (1), Sweden (1), Taiwan (5), Thailand (2), and the United Kingdom (1).

A total of 81 original articles from Australia (8), Brazil (1), China (1), Finland (1), India (3), Indonesia (1), Iran (2), Italy (1), Japan (9), Korea (17), Kuwait (1), Malaysia (3), Malta (1), Mexico (2), Mongolia (1), New Zealand (1), Pakistan (1), the Philippines (6), Portugal (1), Saudi Arabia (2), Singapore (9), Sri Lanka (1), Thailand (5), Turkey (2), and Vietnam (1) have been published.

Twenty-seven case reports from Australia (2), India (1), Indonesia (1), Japan (1), Korea (14), Nepal (1), Singapore (1), Sweden (1), Taiwan (1), Turkey (2), 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 'Irritable bowel syndrome-An inflammatory disease involving mast cells' by Philpott et al. [1], followed by 'Food allergy in Asia: how does it compare?' by Lee et al. [2], and 'Overview on the pathomechanisms of allergic rhinitis' by Pawankar et al. [3]. The estimated unofficial impact factor of Asia Pacific Allergy is now about 1.366 which was manually calculated based on Web of Science database on January 3, 2016.

Asthma can affect all ages: its prevalence is especially high in childhood and the elderly [4]. As we are living in the era of population aging, there could be more elderly people than children in near future [5]. Elderly asthma is getting more important because of its prevalence, under-diagnosis, medication strategies, comorbidity, and mortality [67]. In this issue, Asia Pacific Allergy features important issues on the pharmacotherapy in the management of asthma in the elderly [8].

Chronic urticaria can also affect all ages. Lee et al. [9] suggested management strategies on chronic urticaria in children in this issue.

Stevens-Johnson syndrome (SJS) and toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN) are severe cutaneous adverse reactions which could be critical [10]. This issue features the causative drugs and the clinical manifestations of SJS and TEN from a general hospital in Indonesia: probably the first report from the country [11]. Readers can find a case report of SJS-TEN overlap syndrome from Nepal [12].

Readers will also find an article on the safety of an ultrarush subcutaneous immunotherapy with modified allergen extracts in pediatric age [13], and how to induce allergic pulmonary responses using Tyrophagus putrescentiae in mice [14].

This issue also contains a case report of childhood allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis which presented as a middle lobe syndrome [15].