WASHINGTON — Late summer is prime season for insect stings as the normal sources of food for local bees, yellow jackets, hornets and wasps begins to dry up.
Most people who are stung get a localized reaction marked by redness and swelling. But some will develop a severe allergic response called anaphylaxis.
“It is a very serious issue to have that kind of reaction to stinging insects,” says Dr. Rachel Schreiber, an allergist in Rockville, Maryland.
The good news is unlike extreme food allergies that can also result in anaphylaxis, there is preventive treatment available for insect stings.
Basically, it involves a series of allergy shots designed to desensitize patients to the proteins in insect venom, which can produce an allergic reaction.
“What we do is give tiny amounts of the venom over time,” says Schreiber, explaining that the shots train the body to tolerate the allergen.
It can take years to fully desensitize the body to insect venom. However some patients find adequate protection from what is called “rapid desensitization” — a series of shots administered in one day followed up by boosters over regular intervals.
Schreiber says many people with extreme insect sting allergies don’t even know this potentially lifesaving treatment exists. And while the protection is not 100 percent and patients may still need to carry doses of epinephrine — an injected drug used to treat sudden onsets of anaphylaxis — it is a highly effective procedure.
The whole idea of using tiny doses of insect venom to prevent allergy attacks evolved from studies of beekeepers.
“They studied their blood and found they made a lot of one type of antibody that seemed to be protective,” says Schreiber.
The goal then became to enable those who are severely allergic to develop the same kind of antibodies the beekeepers have.
