Hay Fever Vaccine

It is still far too early in the testing to be confident in the results, but it is nice to imagine the future.

Hay Fever Vaccine

In a trial to test the safety of the vaccine, 20 volunteers, aged between 18 and 65 years, with mild-to-moderate allergic rhinitis, or hay fever, and mild asthma due to house dust mite allergy were vaccinated.

Several weeks after being vaccinated, 17 patients were completely tolerant to the mites, showing no allergic reactions, two showed big improvements, while one failed to turn up for the tests.

Eight months on from these first assessments, the 19 patients are still showing a 100-fold improvement in tolerance to dust mites.

OK, it’s not life saving, but it is life altering. In my own life I’ve lost many productive hours to allergies or to the effects of OTC treatments. I’ve been considering the immunotherapy course, but it is very time consuming. It is nice to think my kids might not have to deal with the aggravation. Who knows, maybe in ten years I might be able to safely visit cat people.