Pollen season has been brought forward...Allergic Treatment Sales Surge
Apr 23, 2025
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Pharmaceutical distribution company GeoYoung announced that the number of pharmacy sales in March of over-the-counter drugs (OTC) Zirtec (component name: cetirizine hydrochloride, 10 tablets), which is used to relieve allergy symptoms, increased by 47.9% compared to the previous month.
The fact that pollen allergy season began earlier than usual was cited as the background of such an increase in allergy relief drug sales.
According to the Ministry of Health and Welfare's National Nutrition Survey, pollen is one of the three leading causes of allergic rhinitis, which 17.4% of adults and 36.6% of teenagers suffer from along with house dust mites and pets, and is also the cause of allergic conjunctivitis and asthma. According to statistics from the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service, the number of allergic rhinitis patients increased by more than 50% from 4,911,876 in 2021 to 7,433,373 in 2023.
Recently, however, as climate change accelerates the flowering period, allergic symptoms also tend to begin early. According to the revised pollen calendar recently released by the Korea Meteorological Administration (reflecting observation information from 2014 to 2024), the average time for tree pollen in spring was three days earlier in eight cities than in the previous calendar. Jeju was advanced by 7 days, 5 days in central areas such as Seoul, Daejeon, and Gangneung, and 1 day in southern areas such as Daegu, Busan, Gwangju, and Jeonju.
The Korea Meteorological Administration recently urged people to be careful when hiking or doing outdoor activities as allergic symptoms caused by trees, such as alder, cypress, and oak, which are common at the foot of mountains, parks, and apartment landscaping trees, may appear faster than in the past.
Reporter Kim So-hyung compact@sportschosun.com
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
