Those who suffer from allergic rhinitis already know that spring is not the easiest season to live with this health problem. Due to the pollen released by flowers, many of these grains get into the air, which are invisible to the naked eye, but certainly irritate the respiratory system.
Allergic rhinitis is more common in this period, but patients face the problem throughout the year. The disease interferes with routine and affects individuals’ quality of life, explained allergist and immunologist Alex Lacerda, of BP – A Beneficência Portugaluesa de São Paulo.
“Rhinitis affects the quality of life in a very intense way, and there are many studies that show a patient has a loss of productivity, school performance up to 40% due to allergic rhinitis. It messes with daily life. They only know when there is a crisis,” he says. Says.
When the problem affects children, the consequences are more serious.
“The child begins to breathe with his mouth open and ends up experiencing changes in the mouth and the structural part of the face. If not treated in childhood, it can become a surgical operation in adulthood,” warns Maria Candida Rizzo, coordinator of the scientific department for Aspi Rhinitis. (Brazilian Society of Allergy and Immunology).
There is no cure for allergies
To the grief of patients, there is no cure for rhinitis, but there are treatments that help improve the lives of allergy sufferers.
“We cannot tell the patient that there is a cure for any allergy. There is a control over the onset process, which can be so effective that he remains asymptomatic. It is important for the patient to understand, so that he does not go wandering from one doctor to another trying to find a cure”, she emphasizes Maria Candida.
The most effective treatment against the disease is immunotherapy or the rhinitis vaccine.
“It is the only treatment that can change the natural history of the disease,” Alex highlights.
How does the rhinitis vaccine work?
Just like the vaccines we used to use to prevent disease, this treatment aims to get the patient to create an immune tolerance to the allergy using the product.
But it is worth noting that everyone has their own medicine, it is not like the common fortifiers that can be mass-produced. Even because individuals have intolerance to different substances and with different degrees of sensitivity.
“For example, someone who is allergic to dust mites. The person comes into contact with this agent, and upon identification, the immune system will understand the mite as an enemy and will create a defensive antibody. [um IGE específico] against this enemy,” Alex explains.
From the detection of the allergen, an individual vaccine is produced that can be used orally or injected containing the substance that causes rhinitis in the patient and is applied periodically.
The effectiveness of this treatment reaches 85% and patients do not have symptoms for many years. It is worth noting that it is not a quick cure and can take three to five years.
“It’s not a treatment that has to be done for six months and given up, because as if you don’t do anything, it’s a long lasting thing, but it’s very exciting because you’re going to show the individual exactly what hurts them, it’s just a small, incremental dose. You have,” says Maria Candida.
Typically, treatment begins with small amounts of the allergen and is increased over time, based on each individual’s immune system responses.
“Immunotherapy aims to decrease this specific IGE antibody and increase the other antibody called IGG4, which will give the immune tolerance and kind of reduce this false response, and you end up modifying and teaching the immune system to get the right response, and that allergy does nothing more. It’s a faulty immune response,” the allergist adds.
How much does immunotherapy cost?
Vaccine production is not a cheap process. The patient spends from 300 reais to 500 reais to manufacture the product.
“Expensive or cheap, that depends. If we think that a patient with allergic rhinitis will have symptoms for 15, 20, 30 years and will have to use the drug during that time, when we put it on the tip of a pencil, it is [benéfico] Take a three-year treatment and stay up to 20 fine, without medication,” Alex points out.
Because the treatment is not offered by the SUS (Unified Health System) and is not part of the ANS (National Health Agency) list of health plans coverage, doctors opt for immunotherapy in the case of patients with more symptoms.
“If a patient has a milder condition, which is very good many times of the year, sometimes even without medication, immunotherapy is not warranted. Depending on the severity of the condition, we can use antihistamines, oral topical corticosteroids or over the counter. For allergies or rhinitis, which are nasal sprays,” explains Maria Candida.
In addition to allergic rhinitis, immunotherapy can also be used for allergic conjunctivitis, allergic asthma and some cases of atopic dermatitis, always under the supervision and monitoring of a doctor.
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