August 2-8 is National EOS Awareness Week raising awareness of eosinophilic gastrointestinal disorders thought to affect as many as 1 in 2000 Australians.

These disorders occur when eosinophils, a type of white blood cell, develop in above normal amounts in the gastrointestinal tract and can cause for example eosinophilic oesophagitis .

Sydney Adventist Hospital Gastroenterologist Dr Saurabh Gupta knows about eosinophilic oesophagatis well both professionally as a Gastroenterologist and personally because he has the condition himself.

He describes it to his patients as asthma of the oesophagus since asthma causes rigidity of the windpipe preventing air getting into the lungs, while this condition causes rigidity and narrowing of the oesophagus preventing problems with digesting or swallowing food – -and both can be attributed to an allergic reaction.

Dr. Gupta joins John Stanley to raise how these often overlooked disorders are more common than you might think.

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