Pediatric Allergy and Immunology Unit

Location: Cairo, Egypt

COE since 2018

Website: www.espai-eg. org

Mission Statement: The Pediatric Allergy, Immunology and Rheumatology Unit, Ain Shams University, pioneered the development of the specialty in pediatrics in Egypt and North Africa. The unit is dedicated to achieving excellence in education, training, and research with the aim of producing new generations of highly qualified allergists and immunologists. Our goal is to serve patients with compassionate health care of highest clinical and ethical standards. The unit advocates the continuous development of programs, courses, and scientific research, while ensuring health care programs that serve community needs.

About the Center: The Pediatric Allergy, Immunology and Rheumatology (PAIR) Unit was founded in 1988 by Prof. Yehia El-Gamal and has tremendously grown ever since in number of staff and services. The unit deals with allergies, inborn errors of immunity and rheumatologic and autoimmune disorders in infants, children, and adolescents. It is a tertiary care center that receives patients from all over the country. Its outpatient clinic operates three days a week and receives about 300 patients per week with new cases mounting up to 25 per week. The integrated research laboratory provides services five days a week. The unit is currently expanding and renovating its allergy diagnosis and immunotherapy services by establishing a larger facility than the existing one with more patient examination rooms, advanced equipment, and recreational area. This service operates 5 days a week.

The PAIR Unit has inpatient wards comprising 24 beds in the Children's Hospital of Ain Shams University. Currently, the Faculty members of the PAIR unit comprise 7 professors and associate professors as well as 9 lecturers and assistant lecturers, in addition to residents/fellows in training. The staff are very enthusiastic and devoted to teaching, training and promoting the specialty by holding scientific conferences, workshops and webinars to train general practitioners and nurses on caring for pediatric allergy, immunology and rheumatology patients. The unit launches and implements basic and clinical allergy, immunology and rheumatology research projects and the resultant papers are published in peer-reviewed journals; some of which won awards and recognitions. Undergraduate and postgraduate rounds are held in the unit because allergy and clinical immunology are included in the Ain Shams teaching curricula.

The PAIR Unit also is a training center for house officers and residents. Many Masters’ and PhD theses are produced in the unit by postgraduate students from Egypt and some Arab countries. The scientific activities of the unit attract health care providers from other hospitals of Cairo and other Egyptian governorates. In line with the mission of the WAO, the PAIR Unit adopts clinical innovation and has good potential advocacy with patients, patient groups, lay community, and government. It has become a proficient center with recognized faculty who are mentors in allergy, asthma and clinical immunology. It represents a well-established research facility, and its members have a good deal of published papers in peer reviewed journals. It distributes booklets and brochures that contain brief information about allergy/immunology disorders and the major international guidelines on their management.