Allergy shots

| allergy is a very common disorder in the population and, in recent years, it seems that it has been increasing due to different factors.

The ideal treatment to combat allergy It is to avoid the allergen (substance that causes the allergy), although this is only feasible in certain allergies (such as food), in others, such as allergy to pollen, it is not possible and vaccination or immunotherapy must be used. The global allergy treatment includes control of environmental factors, drugs to reduce symptoms, patient education and immunotherapy when considered indicated.

allergy vaccines, known medically as immunotherapy, consist of the administration of small amounts of allergen in an increasing way to a patient with the aim of "desensitizing" him to that substance, that is, reducing the number of symptoms so that his allergy improve or disappear.

Before indicating immunotherapy, the allergist must carry out a study of the patient's type of allergy in order to identify the allergen and the indication for the vaccine.

Regarding ages in which it is advisable start this treatment There is no clear recommendation, in principle, it can be started at any age (from children to the elderly) and it must be the allergist who establishes it in each case, assessing various factors.

Immunotherapy can be given subcutaneously (injections) or sublingually (under the tongue).

Before starting immunotherapy, the patient must know that the duration of treatment is long and that the results, in terms of relief of symptoms, take time to appear.

Immunotherapy consists of two phases

• A first initiation phase in which for several weeks in a row (every 7-10 days) progressively increasing amounts of the allergen are administered.
• A second maintenance phase in which the maximum allergen doses reached are administered more widely. Maintenance treatment usually lasts 3-5 years, the decision to interrupt it will be assessed individually, since it seems that the success of the treatment is related to the duration of immunotherapy. It is in this phase that improvement is usually noticed.

Immunotherapy must be administered under the supervision of a doctor, the patient must be informed of the possible reactions after its administration, which can be local (inflammation of the area) or much less frequent systemic (general respiratory, skin symptoms, etc.). For this reason after vaccine injection the patient must remain at rest in the medical center where it is administered for 30 minutes until it is verified that there is no risk.

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