Allergies cost Americans $11 billion: survey

A woman tries to cover her mouth as she walks through cotton-like seeds from Poplar trees, also known as Cottonwood trees, on a Spring day in Beijing April 14, 2008.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Americans spent $11 billion on doctors' bills, prescription drugs and other treatments for allergies in 2005, according to government statistics released on Wednesday.

Sneezing, itchy eyes and other miseries caused by allergies sent 22 million Americans to a doctor that year, according to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

The money they spent is nearly double the $6 billion spent in 2000 on allergies, the agency said.

Of the $11 billion, doctor visits accounted for $4 billion and prescription drugs cost $7 billion.

Between 2000 and 2005, average annual spending on treatment of allergies jumped from $350 per person to $520 per person, the agency's Anita Soni said.

"These expenditures do not include 'over-the-counter' medications used for treatment of allergic rhinitis," the report reads.

"Many popular prescription medications such as Zyrtec and Claritin used for treatment of allergic rhinitis (that) are currently sold as 'over-the-counter,' were sold as prescription drugs only in years 2000 and 2005, thus are included in the expenditures."

Claritin, known and sold generically as loratidine, is made by Schering-Plough Corp. while Johnson & Johnson acquired Zyrtec, or cetirizine, when it bought Pfizer Consumer Health.

(Reporting by Maggie Fox, editing by Will Dunham)