Greetings from Asia Pacific Allergy

It is a great honor and responsibility for me to take over the duty of the Editor-in-Chief of Asia Pacific Allergy after the founding Editor-in-Chief, professor Sang-Il Lee, and the second Editor-in-Chief, professor Connie H. Katelaris. Asia Pacific Allergy, the official journal of Asia Pacific Association of Asthma, Allergy, and Clinical Immunology (APAAACI), has been very successful since its inaugural issue on April 30, 2011. Asia Pacific Allergy has published a total of 91 original articles from Australia (8), China (4), France (1), Finland (1), India (4), Indonesia (1), Iran (2), Italy (1), Japan (10), Korea (19), Kuwait (1), Malaysia (3), Malta (1), Mexico (2), Mongolia (1), New Zealand (1), Pakistan (1), the Philippines (7), Portugal (1), Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (2), Singapore (10), Sri Lanka (1), Thailand (6), Turkey (2), and Vietnam (1), 65 review articles, and 31 case reports. According to Google citation index, a total of 187 articles of Asia Pacific Allergy have been cited 1,589 times. The unofficial impact factor of Asia Pacific Allergy was 1.366 which was manually calculated based on Web of Science database on January 3, 2016. On behalf of the new editorial board, I would like to express sincere gratitude to the previous editorial board members, reviewers, authors, readers, and all the persons who contributed for Asia Pacific Allergy. I would like to also welcome and thank the new editorial board members for joining this wonderful journey. The Joint Congress of APAAACI and Asia Pacific Association of Pediatric Allergy, Respirology, and Immunology (APAPARI) 2016 hosted by the Malaysian Society of Allergy and Immunology in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (October 17–20, 2016) was a very successful meeting in terms of the science and friendship. APAAACI highly appreciates APAPARI, the local organizing committee, the member societies, and all the participants for the collaboration and contribution. We learned that we were actually living in ‘The Era of Allergy’ and got the ‘Local and Global Insights’ on allergic diseases. We shared our experience in clinical practice, research, guidelines, and allergy programs. We discussed a lot on unique allergens and allergic diseases in Asia, and how to make an ‘Intervention’ on allergy. “The Era of Allergy: Local and Global Insights and Intervention” was truly the main theme of the Congress. During the congress, we had the editorial board meeting with the new editorial board members of Asia Pacific Allergy (Fig. 1). We will do our best to make Asia Pacific Allergy a better platform of the science and communication. Cough is a common symptom for which patients seek medical attention. Chronic cough is defined as cough lasting