Doctors spoke about the beginning of the allergy season: “The main thing is preventive treatment”

Doctors spoke about the beginning of the allergy season: “The main thing is preventive treatment”

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According to the latest data from medical experts, from 18% to 35% of Russians suffer from allergic diseases. There are even more children with allergies – almost a third. So for some, the arrival of spring and summer is a joy, but not for this category of the population, for whom the time of torment will soon begin. The most common unpleasant reaction of the body among Russians is to pollen from birch, a native Russian tree. Leading medical experts in this field told how patients can survive the upcoming 2024 allergy season and when the Russian vaccine against birch pollen allergy will be released.

The situation with allergies is complicated by the fact that people confuse its clinical manifestations with a cold. Therefore, a person may not immediately suspect that he has this disease. Therefore, doctors warn that if at the same periods during the year someone experiences symptoms of ARVI or a cold, one must think about whether this is a manifestation of an allergy? Doctors recommend not to be treated with antibiotics for “flu” and “colds” in this case, but rather to take an antihistamine as a test. If it helps, then immediately see an allergist.

According to the Deputy Director for Clinical Work, Chief Physician of the Federal State Budgetary Institution State Scientific Center Institute of Immunology of the Federal Medical and Biological Agency of Russia, General Director of the Russian Association of Allergists and Clinical Immunologists (RAACI), Doctor of Medical Sciences. Professor Natalya Ilyina, in central Russia and in the south the allergic season has already begun, “the alder is already dusty,” but the highest concentration of pollen in the air should be expected in the second half of April – early May. The exact timing of the “peak” of pollen cannot be named; it depends on both temperature values ​​and the presence of precipitation, which temporarily transports pollen. For residents of the Central region of the Russian Federation, the middle zone and the North-Western region, the most difficult season will begin with the dusting of trees – birch, alder, hazel, then meadow grasses, ragweed pollen grains will join the tree allergens, and this whole “nightmare of allergy sufferers” will last until October . If a person has a reaction only to trees, then his suffering will end in the second half of May, but if he reacts to many plants at once, then the difficult period is long – all spring and all summer.

Natalya Ilyina made a disappointing forecast for allergy sufferers for this season – due to the large snow cover and abundance of moisture that we have observed this winter, trees will “actively dust” in the spring, even “pollen storms” are expected.

Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, President of the Union of Pediatricians of Russia, Head of the Department of Faculty Pediatrics of the Russian National Research Medical University named after. N.I. Pirogova, chief freelance pediatric specialist in preventive medicine of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, Leila Namazova-Baranova, during a press conference at the Izvestia Medical Center, noted: many people are sure that they are allergic to poplar fluff, but in fact the vast majority of patients those with hay fever (an allergic reaction that occurs to plant pollen) react not to poplar, but to birch. The thing is that fluff is a pollen collector. Important tips in this regard: when a person suffering from hay fever comes home from the street, he needs to take off all his clothes, wash them, go to the shower, wash his hair to remove pollen from his hair, and wash his face and eyes.

The expert gave recommendations to parents on how to reduce the risk of developing allergies in their children. Firstly, you need to think about this long before conception – parents must be examined and be healthy (chronic diseases must be under control). At the same time, a pregnant woman should not adhere to special hypoallergenic diets – only if a particular patient is allergic to some product. Secondly, it is better for the child when he passes through the mother’s birth canal, that is, he is born naturally, and not through a cesarean section, which should not be carried out “at the request” of the mother, but solely for medical reasons.

Thirdly, breastfeeding immediately after birth, subsequent breastfeeding, and timely vaccination of the baby will reduce the risk of allergies. But if there are allergy sufferers among the child’s relatives, then the chances that he will develop this disease increase. “It is important to contact an allergist at the very first symptoms of an allergy in a child, and not to bloggers or fortune-tellers,” Namazova-Baranova warned. — Because early initiation of proper therapy, including allergen-specific immunotherapy (ASIT) (gradual introduction of increasing doses of allergen into the patient’s body. — Auto.) – our favorite preventive antiallergic method, leads to the fact that symptoms disappear and people then live a full life.”

By the way, it’s a pity that with the help of the ASIT method, only allergies to trees, plants, herbs and even cat fur are now treated, but not to food products…

The bad news is that medicine has not yet come up with a magic remedy to rid a person of allergies forever, and therefore one should not believe medical charlatans who promise such “deliverance.” Nowadays, when, according to Ilyina, allergies have become epidemic, all efforts of doctors are aimed at early diagnosis and reducing the severity of the disease. At any time, the disease can return in certain unfavorable situations – stressful or with high exposure to allergens. “As with any chronic illness, the key is to be aware of it and get it under control; The quality of life in patients who receive proper pharmacotherapy and ASIT in a timely manner does not suffer,” says Ilyina. It is impossible to get rid of allergies forever, but you can prolong the remission as much as possible. At the same time, doctors warned that any allergic disease, if the patient is not observed, can be deadly.

And here is good news for such patients: the Institute of Immunology is developing a Russian vaccine against allergies to the most “popular” allergen – birch pollen. Preclinical studies have proven its effectiveness and safety. The first and second phases of clinical trials will begin in the fall. Registration of this vaccine is expected in 2025, and with favorable clinical results in 2026, it may already enter civilian circulation. It is expected that the patient will need 3 to 5 injections. It will be used first for adult patients, and then for children.

Published in the newspaper “Moskovsky Komsomolets” No. 29241 dated March 22, 2024

Newspaper headline:
The pollen has arrived again

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