“The ban on eating nuts on planes is ineffective in preventing anaphylaxis”. Peanut and nut particles are not spread through air-conditioning on planes. Allergy sufferers should rather be encouraged to wipe down their seat area, tray table and TV screen controls to remove any nut residues left behind by previous passengers. Touching nut residues in [...]
Now is the time to be considering what to do about your hay fever symptoms next year. We read about Pollen "bombs", global warming and El Nino weather system changes all making summer hay fever symptoms (Medical term Pollinosis) intolerable. Even taking mega-doses of antihistamines, soothing eye drops and anti-inflammatory nasal spray's, hardly have any [...]
A recent article by Lawrence Afrin (international expert on Mast Cell Activation), has suggested that Mast Cell Activation may be a mediator of Long COVID syndrome (multiple persistent and debilitating symptoms following a COVID-19 infection) and many Long COVID symptoms mimic those of Mast Cell Activation (including unexplained rashes and swelling, confusion with fatigue, palpitations, [...]
New Immunotherapy products are to be launched in UK this month. The great news is that ALK -Abello (UK) have been awarded license to sell two novel immunotherapy products in the UK and these will be available at Community Pharmacy's on prescription from Allergists at the end of this month. They will be joining the [...]
There has been a lot of confusion and misinformation about risks of anaphylaxis to the COVID -19 coronavirus vaccines available. Many healthy individuals are being declined the vaccine and told to be allergy tested if they have a history of food or medication allergy or any form of anaphylaxis. The COVID-19 vaccines contain no food [...]
ALK Abello will be launching their new House Dust Mite (Acarizax) and Silver Birch tree pollen (Itulazax) sublingual desensitisation immunotherapy vaccines (SLIT) in the UK in late 2021. This follows the highly successful Grass pollen vaccine SLIT called Grazax which was launched about 10 years ago and has greatly improved quality of life for thousands [...]
COVID-19 infections manifest in a multitude of different ways and after the initial viral illness, there seem to be a number of debilitating long-term effects that may develop. The skin manifestations are related to the COVID-19 virus damaging small skin blood vessels and very often mimic and be confused with skin allergies. 1) COVID Toes [...]
A number of highly allergic individuals have had acute allergic reactions to the COVID-19 Vaccine available in the UK from Pfizer/BioNTech pharmaceuticals. It appears to be an excipient in the vaccine called Polyethylene Glycol that causes these reactions. It is therefore advised to avoid this Covid-19 vaccine if allergic to polyethylene glycol, or if you have [...]
Allergology has come a long way since Johansson and Ishizaka discovered IgE in 1967 to be the antibody that mediated acute serious allergic reactions. Phadia, and then Thermo Fisher developed multiple specific allergy tests using individual IgE antigens that revolutionised allergy diagnosis and treatment. More recent developments include testing sensitivity to the various component allergenic [...]
The devastating Cytokine Storm that has such a catastrophic effect on the airways and vital organs during the COVID-19 illness behaves very much like a severe allergic reaction. Thankfully COVID deaths related to this cytokine storm are starting to fall. In an attempt to neutralise the Corona virus and kill it off, the immune system [...]