Around 12 million people in Germany suffer from allergic rhinitis - commonly known as hay fever - and the trend is rising due to the climate crisis. Allergies are sometimes accompanied by massive restrictions in quality of life and general health.

The new pollen app, which is currently being tested at the Department of Environmental Medicine at the University of Augsburg, is now intended to provide a remedy. Patients from the Augsburg and Bad Hindelang area can now directly access daily and local pollen count data provided by automatic pollen measuring devices in Bad Hindelang and at Augsburg University Hospital. Until now, the forecast models have mostly been based on pollen measurements with conventional pollen traps, which can only provide the pollen count for a day with a delay of 1-2 weeks by manually counting the pollen under a microscope. Some of the 200 test subjects who test the app also keep a symptom diary in the app and receive helpful tips on how to deal with their pollen allergies. This will hopefully significantly improve the quality of life of many sufferers and bring about an improvement in symptoms and the course of the disease.

Other options for treating and preventing pollen allergies are also highlighted in the report. You can access this here (in German).

More information about the study here (in German).