Immunotherapy produces long term clinical remission

The use of allergen immuno-therapy to treat seasonal allergic rhinitis produces clinical improve-ments that continue after treatment has stopped, according to the results of a randomised, placebo controlled trial published in the New England Journal of Medicine (1999;341:468-75).

A study in 1991 showed that injections with a grass pollen vaccine reduced symptoms and the need for hayfever medication in patients with seasonal allergic rhinitis that could not be controlled with antiallergic drugs (BMJ 1991;302:265-9). Dr Stephen Durham and …