Severe H1N1 Swine Flu Up in South

Georgia's Rise in Flu Hospitalizations Worries CDC
By Daniel J DeNoon
WebMD Health News

March 29, 2010 -- H1N1 swine flu hospitalizations in Georgia have returned to October levels, triggering a nationwide CDC warning that too many at-risk people have not been vaccinated.

The Georgia findings today spurred the CDC to hold its first national news teleconference in weeks. During the height of the pandemic, the CDC scheduled two or three such news conferences weekly.

"Georgia had more than 40 hospitalizations from lab-confirmed H1N1 influenza this past week, and for the third week in a row had more of these than anywhere in the country," Anne Schuchat, MD, director of the CDC's respiratory disease center, said at the news conference.

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Change in Allergy Injections Schedule - April 2010

We will be closing earlier on Good Friday, April 2, 2010. Allergy injections will be given until 12 noon.

We will also be closed on Wednesday, April 7, 2010. Allergy injections will not be given that day.

Climate Change and Allergies?

Allergy Sufferers Journey into the Season of Symptoms

By Mary Brophy Marcus
From USAToday

Global warming could be notching up allergies and extending allergy season around the world, recent research suggests.

In one study, discussed this month at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology in New Orleans, researchers tracked season duration and prevalence of sensitizations for five types of pollens in one region of Italy from 1981 to 2007. They reported that over time, there was a progressive increase in the duration of some pollen seasons.

"Allergies and asthma seem to be increasing everywhere, and we don't know why that is," says David Rosenstreich, director of the division of allergy and immunology at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, N.Y. Rosenstreich says global warming probably is not the only culprit; many factors seem to be coming together to create a "perfect storm of allergy and asthma."

He points to the changing geography of New York as an example. Just north of the Bronx lies a solid blanket of woods for 100 miles. "There are more trees in that area now than there were 100 years ago. It used to be all farms. Now, in spring, right smack in the middle of the Bronx, we have an enormous amount of pollen blowing in — a huge epidemic of asthma and allergies every spring that the hospitals prepare for."

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FraggeAllergy.com

We are proud to announce that our website is now up and running.

Go to www.FraggeAllergy.com and learn more about our practice.

Feel free to give us comments so we can make it better.

Thanks!

Change in Allergy Injections Schedule - March 11, 2010

We will be closing earlier than usual on Thursday, March 11 for allergy injections. We will be giving injections until 5:15 PM that day.

Low Vitamin D Levels Linked to Asthma

By Charlene Laino
From WebMD Health News

Many children with asthma have low blood levels of vitamin D, and the insufficiency seems to place them at risk for more severe disease.

In a study of 99 kids with asthma, 47% had vitamin D insufficiency. Compared with children with normal levels of vitamin D levels, those with vitamin D insufficiency:

• Had poorer lung function
• Had higher levels of immunoglobulin E (IgE), an immune system protein the body makes in response to allergens that tells you the likelihood that you're allergic
• Were more likely to need inhaled and oral steroid medications to reduce airway inflammation and mucus production
• Were more likely to need long-acting beta-agonist drugs that relax muscles in the lung's airways, improving a patient's ability to breathe freely and reducing asthma symptoms
  

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Oral Immunotherapy for Egg Allergies Shows Promise

A study presented at the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology(AAAAI) revealed that oral immunotherapy can induce desensitization in children with egg allergies. The study was a multi-center, randomized, placebo-controlled study looking into the safety and efficacy of oral immunotherapy for egg food allergy.

The investigators enrolled 55 egg-allergic children between the ages of 5 and 18 years and randomized them to receive either a daily dose of egg white solid OIT (n = 40; 62% male; mean age, 7.13 years) or a placebo (n = 15; 60% male; mean age, 7.07 years). All patients underwent initial escalation, build-up, and maintenance (at 2000 mg) for a total of 44 weeks, followed by an oral food challenge.

Results at the end of the study showed that 21 of the 40 children who received the OIT passed the oral food challenge, whereas none of those who received the placebo did.

These results are encouraging and hopefully in the near future, allergists will be able to offer therapeutic options for patients suffering from food allergies. Researchers are also pursuing oral immunotherapy to other foods such as peanuts.

Source: Medscape Medical News

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Asthma Severity Remains Stable in Pregnant Women Continuing Their Medication

By Laurie Barclay
From Medscape Medical News

March 5, 2010 — Asthma severity during pregnancy is similar to severity in the previous year if women continue to take their prescribed medication but is more severe if they discontinue it, according to the results of a study reported in the March issue of Obstetrics & Gynecology.

"Early investigators suggested a rule of thirds: in one third of women, asthma improves during pregnancy; in one third, asthma becomes worse; and in one third it remains the same," write Kathleen Belanger, PhD, from Yale University School of Public Health in New Haven, Connecticut, and colleagues. "However, assessment of improvement has often been subjective, and exacerbations have been measured by hospitalizations and emergency department visits. No studies have used the more common clinical endpoints of symptoms and medication use to assess exacerbation during pregnancy."

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Spring Pollen Allergies - Be Prepared

Food Allergies: Suspect, Test, Avoid

From WebMD.com

March 15, 2006 -- The nation's major allergy organizations have agreed on how best to diagnose and manage food allergies.

The new "practice parameters," from a panel of allergy experts, are a state-of-the-art guide on how to detect and treat food allergy.

Food allergies are common -- and commonly misunderstood by doctors as well as patients, says panel co-chairman Jay M. Portnoy, MD, who is chief of allergy, asthma, and immunology at Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Mo., and vice president of the American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology.

"I see patients all the time who go to a doctor, skin-test positive for lots of different foods, and are advised to avoid all of these foods," Portnoy tells WebMD. "It makes their life miserable. And it turns out they are not truly allergic to all these foods after all."

Portnoy's complaint rings true with patient advocate Anne Muñoz-Furlong, founder and CEO of The Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network (FAAN).

"Some parents never suspect food allergies until their child ends up at the emergency room -- where they might be told it is a food allergy, or they might not," Muñoz-Furlong tells WebMD. "Or if the child first has mild symptoms, like eczema, they may not realize it is a food allergy. And then the entire family suffers until a diagnosis is made and the food is eliminated from the diet."

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Panel Critical of FDA's Asthma Drug Ruling

Experts Concerned About Limits on Long-Acting Asthma Drugs Such as Serevent and Foradil

By Charlene Laino
WebMD Health News

March 1, 2010 (New Orleans) -- A leading panel of asthma experts today criticized a new FDA ruling that long-acting asthma drugs should be used only for the shortest period of time required to achieve control of asthma symptoms and then discontinued.

The panel agreed with the FDA warning that the long-acting drugs Serevent and Foradil should never be used alone, but rather in combination with other asthma-control medications called inhaled steroids.

But the move to limit use of Serevent and Foradil as well as the combination drugs Advair and Symbicort puts patients at risk of full-blown, deadly asthma attacks, says William Busse, MD, chair of the department of medicine at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health in Madison.

All of the drugs are a member of a class of drugs called long-acting beta agonists (LABAs), which the FDA cautions can provoke a sudden, fatal asthma attack.

"But the risk to a patients from LABAs is very remote," Busse tells WebMD.

The risk of having a deadly attack if you suddenly stop taking the LABA medication once control is achieved is much greater, he says.

Busse was chair of the panel that wrote the asthma bible that most doctors follow -- the 2007 National Asthma Education and Prevention Program Expert Panel Report 3: Guidelines for the Diagnosis and Management of Asthma.

"The fact that the [FDA ruling] runs counter to the asthma guidelines without any new information being introduced is of real concern," he says.

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