Rapid Allergy Shots in One Office Visit May Be Safe for Children
Have we lost all sense of reason and common sense???? This report from the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology suggests that it is safe to give multiple doses of certain allergy shots in one day to obtain the desired immunological response. As if this alone shouldn’t raise an eyebrow (I’m sure every 5 year old would jump at the chance for two sets of shots in one day) the authors suggest pre-treatment for two days with prednisolone and antihistamines. Huh? At one point do we take a step back and decide that we are over-medicating our children?
60th Annual Meeting of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology.
Accelerated schedules of allergy shots may present little risk of systemic reactions, suggest findings presented here Tuesday at the meeting of the American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology.Immunization levels that usually require 6 months to achieve can be obtained through rapid immunization within a single 2.5-hour visit, said investigator Dr. William Smits. Rapid immunization is also “more user-friendly for the office-based practice.””We have to show our non-allergist colleagues that this works,” Dr. Smits said.Others have reported more adverse events with accelerated schedules of allergy shots, he added. But Dr. Smits and colleagues’ retrospective analysis of 37 children treated for allergic rhinitis at their private clinic, in Fort Wayne, Indiana, yielded no instances of systemic reaction.Children between 3 and 15 years were included. Two thirds had asthma, and those with an FEV1 of less than 70% were not considered eligible. There was no control group.All were pretreated with prednisolone and an antihistamine for 2 days prior to the day of accelerated injections.Localized reactions to shots affected two patients (5%) within 3 months, but these patients resumed a conventional regular vaccination schedule following the reactions. Three patients (8.1%) complained of localized reactions on the day of injection that were mild and did not require treatment.”Our interest is to make this a safe procedure,” Dr. Smits said. “I predict in 5 years all allergists will be doing this.”Dr. Smits noted that better compliance should result with the rapid schedule, as patients start to feel better faster, within 1 month or 2.At 3 months, 92% of patients were compliant, as were 75% after 1 year, Dr. Smits said, “which is an improvement over our [usual] rate of 60%, and the published rates.