Asthma patients have been asked to take preventive measures to avoid from medical complications in this high risk pollen allergy season.
An official of Allergy Centre, National Institute of Health (NIH) on Tuesday said that as pollen count is gradually increasing in the federal capital, the asthma patients should immediately take precautionary measures.
He said the patients visiting the allergy centre are mainly suffering from bronchial asthma, seasonal allergic rhinitis, perennial allergic rhinitis, allergic conjunctivitis, skin rashes, urticaria, angioedema, and other dermatological problems not
related to allergies.
He said the center is working to treat and provide allergy vaccine immunotherapy to the patients suffering from nasal, respiratory tract, skin, gastrointestinal tract and food related allergy problems.
He said patients with severe complications mainly refer to other government hospitals including Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) for relevant medical care.
He said when any new patient with allergy symptoms come to the centre, doctors get blood samples for test to check whether he or she is suffering from such disease or not.
An official said in case of positive blood report, the centre start patient’s vaccination while if doctors find any other medical complications they refer such patient to the concerned doctor
or hospital.
He said in some cases, the centre’s doctors also advise patients for other tests for complete investigation of the disease. He said the total vaccination period is three year, adding doctors include some medicines also in case of no positive affect on patients and they stop the medication in severe condition. He said when some allergy producing particles enters the nose and comes in contact with the internal lining of the nose than as a reaction their is swelling and inflammation in the nose and the patient suffers from symptoms like sneezing, nasal itching, watery nasal dripping, watering of eyes and mild
sore throat.
He said the different types of substances producing allergy are pollen grains of flowers, dust particles, house dust mite, outdoor and indoor molds or fungus, insect venom of bee, animal dander like sloughed off skin, saliva and excreta of dog or cat secretions and excretions of birds, body parts and excreta of insects like cockroach, foods like milk, egg, fish, prawns, beef, mutton, chicken, peanuts, and some drugs like penicillin, sulfa drugs and insulin.