Buzz. Buzz. Zing.
In the back yard under the crab apple tree, only one thing can abruptly ruin a lazy summer day: the sting of a bee, hornet or wasp. The same insects that float from stem to stem, coloring summers with flowers as they search for pollen, are also killers.
Millions of people could avoid life-threatening allergic reactions if they'd speak up -- to a doctor. You know who you are -- you've already had one severe reaction to an insect sting. In all likelihood, people who have had one bad experience are candidates for a purse or pocket-size prescription of the drug epinephrine.
Some also may be eligible for venom immunology, the 20-year-old preventive series of shots of venom that is almost 100 percent perfect in building a patient's immunity and blocking the reaction. It is taken weekly for two or three months, then repeated every one or two months for up to five years.
But most people don't know about either, a fact that leaves allergists almost as angry as bees in late summer. Allergists have gone on the attack, giving information to the places patients could obtain it -- emergency rooms and general doctors' offices.
Venom immunology is reserved for the severely allergic, and a person can be tested for reactions and treated with it only after experiencing a first severe reaction.
"But the biggest thing is knowing it is available and no more dangerous than any other allergy shot," says Dr. David Golden, associate professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University and a specialist in allergies, particularly those caused by insect stings.
"Yes, allergic reactions to shots can happen," he says, but no more often than reactions to shots for grass or dust mites. The therapy is also safe for pregnant women, he says.
Golden was the lead author of a 1989 study that determined an estimated 3 percent of adults and 1 percent of children have had allergic reactions to insect stings. The big surprise in the study was that nine of 10 people who suffered a bad reaction to a sting never told their doctors. As many as 10 million people are hypersensitive enough to require extra protection; but many who know they are at risk shrug it off, assuming they will not be stung again. Sometimes they're right, but sometimes, the next sting brings an even more severe reaction.
