specific immunotherapy

Allergic rhinitis is one of the persistent diseases that plague patients, it is not an inflammation caused by ordinary bacteria viruses etc., antibiotics can do nothing to it. It is an immune disease characterized by paroxysmal nasal itching, sneezing, runny nose, nasal congestion, decreased sense of smell, etc. Although it is not a life-threatening disease, it can have a significant impact on people’s quality of life. Children suffer from poor sleep due to allergic rhinitis attacks, and taking medication can cause drowsiness. Both can affect children’s development, with character defects such as reduced learning ability and unwillingness to communicate with others. Adults may have a reduced ability to work and socialize. Particular attention should be paid to the allergic rhinitis patients, up to 40% can develop into asthma, nasal polyps, and can also suffer from allergic dermatitis, otitis media, etc. Currently, some experts believe that allergic rhinitis should be regarded as part of the systemic disease. The treatment of allergic rhinitis includes non-specific treatment and specific treatment, the former mainly refers to drug treatment, and the latter includes allergen avoidance and specific immunotherapy. Since the allergens that cause allergic rhinitis are inhalant sensitizers, in most cases they cannot be avoided any more than one can refuse to breathe. Specific immunotherapy, commonly known as desensitization therapy, involves injecting allergens repeatedly and in increasing doses to improve the patient’s tolerance to the allergens, thereby achieving the goal of healing. For a long time, the treatment of allergic rhinitis and asthma is mainly based on medication, long-term use of drugs, stopping the recurrence of drugs, patients not only have to bear a large amount of drug expenses, but also often in a state of sub-health, and there are long-term use of drugs to produce toxic side effects of the problem, long-term efficacy of the treatment is difficult to be satisfied. Desensitization therapy has a history of more than 100 years, is relatively common in foreign countries, many domestic hospitals have been trying to carry out, but due to technical limitations, and doctors and patients do not know enough to carry out not standardized and popular. Recently, the standardized desensitization vaccine has made the standardization and popularization of desensitization treatment possible. This treatment method was recognized by the World Health Organization in 1998 as the only allopathic treatment method that can change the course of allergic diseases, and it can play a fundamental role in the treatment of the disease, and its main therapeutic effects include reducing or disappearing the symptoms of allergy and reducing the frequency of asthma and rhinitis attacks; preventing the development of allergic diseases into asthma; and maintaining long-term therapeutic effect after the treatment is completed. After the end of the desensitization treatment, the long-term effect can still be maintained; reduce the use of hormones and other symptomatic drugs, effectively avoiding the adverse effects of long-term medication, especially on the development of children; improve the allergic body, blocking the emergence of new allergies; reduce the total cost of medical care, reducing the financial burden on the family. When using this vaccine, we can accurately know the content of the main allergenic proteins in the human body for each injection, with stable efficacy and few adverse reactions. At present there are more than 30 kinds of standardized desensitization vaccines available abroad. China in 2001, under the leadership of academician Zhong Nanshan, carried out the world’s largest house dust mite vaccine clinical validation, the commodity name of the standardized desensitization vaccine against dust mites enter the Chinese market, and in line with the specific qualifications of the three hospitals to gradually set up the “Allergen Diagnosis and Desensitization Treatment Room”, all the health care personnel have passed the “International Standardized Specific Antigenic Vaccine”, “International Standardized Specific Antigenic Vaccine”. All medical and nursing staff have been trained in the “International Standardized Specific Immunotherapy” to ensure that the entire diagnosis and treatment is in full compliance with the protocols of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the European Society of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (ESACI). At present, there are more than 40 allergen diagnosis and desensitization treatment rooms in China, including Tongren Hospital in Beijing and the Second Hospital of Shanxi Medical University in North China. Can I undergo desensitization treatment if I suspect an allergy? No, there is a standardized diagnosis and treatment system for standardized desensitization vaccine treatment. For patients with clinical allergic rhinitis or asthma, a skin prick test is first performed to identify the allergic substance. The skin prick test involves placing a small amount of liquid containing the allergen on the patient’s forearm and gently piercing the skin surface with a prick needle. If the patient is allergic to the allergen, a red bump similar to a mosquito bite will appear at the prick site within a few minutes. Skin prick test is recognized in Europe and the United States as the most convenient and effective method of allergen diagnosis, with a high degree of safety and sensitivity, the patient is painless (mosquito bites like), and can immediately know the results. If dust mite allergy is confirmed, treatment can be carried out with Antarctica (standardized dust mite allergen vaccine). Desensitization is divided into an initial treatment phase, which consists of weekly injections, gradually increasing from a starting dose to a maintenance dose over a period of about 4-6 months, and a maintenance treatment, which consists of injections every 6-8 weeks for a total period of about 3 years. The effect usually starts in 3-4 months, with a significant effect seen in 6 months. In 1998, the WHO stated in its guidance document on immunotherapy that standardized desensitization is the only allopathic treatment that can be used to alter the natural course of allergic disease, and that starting desensitization early in the course of the disease may alter its long-term course. Desensitization therapy is more effective in children than in adults. Currently children with mild to moderate asthma and allergic rhinitis can be desensitized from the age of 5 years if the allergen diagnosis is dust mites. There are many allergens in nature, dust mites being the most important one and known as the invisible culprit of allergic diseases. Now we have a powerful weapon in the form of Antarctica, however, we still need more standardized desensitization vaccines to bring good health to allergy-suffering patients.