Bee Sting Allergy Therapy That’s Safe Is Possible Say Doctors
In Italy, an experimental treatment meant to help those with a severe bee sting allergy is being tested and involves what is known as “under-tongue” therapy.
To date, as Dr. Giovanni Passalacqua told Reuters, injection immunotherapy has been the primary way to treat anyone with a severe reaction to a bee sting allergy but now there’s a new option: “Our research opens a new possible application of sublingual immunotherapy, which was never proposed for hymenoptera allergy.”
Injection immunotherapy can be dangerous according to Dr. Passalacqua as the patient is giving increasing numbers of doses of bee venom in hopes of building tolerance. This is also very risky and may result in the patient having a severe allergic reaction.
With the steady administration of venom through under tongue therapy as demonstrated in Passalacqua’s research (printed in July in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology), the chance of a severe reaction is much less. In tests, daily doses were tiny at the start and increased to bigger doses by the end of the 6-month trial.
Passalacqua indicated that this may be an effective way to treat multiple allergens, including bee sting allergies, and testing is ongoing.
September 5, 2008 – 8:43 pm
