Associations of allergic and asthmatic patients in Europe

Abstract

Patients’ associations are NGOs that emerge as a result of the needs of patients with chronic diseases that cannot be solved in the doctor’s surgery. At the start, the role of the health personnel, in guiding and collaborating with them, was fundamental, and their aims and interests coincided to a high degree. Their healthy operation favored both the patients and, indirectly, the health professionals related to them. However, we must bear in mind that those interests are not identical and, on occasion, can be clearly divergent. This is why the independence of these associations cannot be renounced upon, and they are managed according to the growth in their size and social influence.