Allergy Vaccines

Allergy vaccines are generally available for treatment of the most common allergies, particularly treating conditions such as hayfever or house-dust mite allergy. Although not particularly common, allergy to stings from insects (particularly bees and wasps) can be very serious and unfortunately causes a small number of fatalities worldwide each year. Treatment for this particular condition has documented that allergy vaccination is effective.

Allergy vaccination is performed using a series of carefully graduated doses, starting with a very small dose and increasing step-by-step. This approach is a sound and safe strategy, but can involve a prolonged course (e.g. sometimes up to 18-20 injections). These long, less 'patient-friendly' courses can be reduced in length by adopting two approaches.

Firstly, the allergenic potential of an allergen may be substantially reduced by chemical modification- the allergen is then termed an allergoid.

Secondly, an allergen or allergoid may be adsorbed onto an inert carrier, termed an adjuvant (see 'Adjuvants'), which has the effect of providing a slow release of the material.

Using both the above measures has allowed allergy vaccination courses to be completed with six injections or less.

Some courses of allergy vaccination are needle-free and taken by mouth (termed oral or sublingual). These are again more 'patient-friendly' and come with fruity flavours. This comparatively new route of treatment is obviously attractive but many clinicians are yet to be convinced of the effectiveness of this approach and of discarding conventional injection therapy altogether.