Not really. If this was an article about bad sanitation in India, and someone came and said that diseases like typhoid were a third world problem because the f

Not really. If this was an article about bad sanitation in India, and someone came and said that diseases like typhoid were a third world problem because the first world had good sanitation, that would be okay (even if obvious and unnecessary). The discussion here is about allergies, and OP is right in saying that they are largely a first world problem. The rebuke about sanitation practices is irrelevant to that discussion. It's not as if those Indians who live in cities with good sanitation and manage to not get typhoid have a lot of allergies.