Russians are entering the second allergic wave. Where is it taking humanity and how to survive in it, Ogonyok found out

Elena KUDRYAVTSEVA

The pinto horse galloped across the stadium, followed by its dandruff in a thin trail. Dandruff, of course, was not visible, and 23- year-old Moscow medical university student Nastya Glebova had no idea about it. But a second after the horse ran past, Nastya began to choke. Her face was swollen, and hoarse sighs escaped from her throat. A couple of days later she was diagnosed with an allergy to horse dander.

No one knows why allergies occur. For some reason, one person’s body perceives pollen normally, but for another it turns out to be as dangerous an agent as a virus or bacteria, against which one must stand with a wall.

— Since the late 60s of the last century, there has been an inexplicable epidemic rise in allergic diseases. It hit us like a wave. Suddenly, the bill went not to percentages, but to several times, says Deputy Director of the State Research Center Institute of Immunology of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, Professor Natalia Ilyina. — The number of cases of bronchial asthma has increased fourfold, and allergic rhinitis — sixfold. But back in the century before last, the English doctor John Bostock had to visit a lot of hospitals to find at least one patient with hay fever and describe the disease!

Scientists are clear that changes at the genetic level could not have occurred in the human population - the period was too short. So it's all about the environment. According to statistics, most allergy sufferers live in civilized countries with the so-called Western culture. This culture, in addition to Kafka and Schopenhauer, includes universal vaccination, an abundance of antibiotics and sterile living conditions, relative to, for example, African ones. As a result, according to scientists, the human body does not train the immune system since childhood, which, like any untrained system, behaves sluggishly and gives in to any aggression. At the same time, allergies sometimes arise to completely incomprehensible things. By the way, when Nastya Glebova told her boyfriend that she had a terrible allergy to horse dander, he neighed wildly.

DISORDER WITH THE TICK

By 2010, a vaccine against allergies will be created. The Swiss company Cytos Biotechnology made such a loud statement recently.

“We have completed clinical trials of a vaccine that prevents the development of allergies,” says Public Relations Director Claudine Blazer. — The clinical trial involved 40 people who received an injection of the experimental drug for six weeks. According to preliminary results, this increased the body's resistance to the allergen by 100 times.

The Swiss make a vaccine against dust mite allergies with the beautiful Latin name dermatophagoides. According to WHO, 20 percent of the world's population suffers from allergies, and more than half of the cases are due to dust mite allergies. In principle, this tick has been walking hand in hand with humans for centuries, but only now the human body has begun to perceive the waste products of its little fellow as a strong irritant. For our country, this problem is especially relevant due to the similarity of the habits of a Russian citizen and a dust mite. Dust mites feed on particles of exfoliating human skin and like to live in warm, secluded places: carpets, mattresses and bed linen. Many Russians still decorate their homes with carpets (preferably made of wool) and sleep on pillows with natural filling. In addition, we have a habit of not parting with mattresses, transporting them with us from apartment to apartment, as an enduring value, although according to all sanitary standards, the mattress should be changed every 5 - 8 years.

To reconcile the tick with a person, the Swiss created a special drug by combining part of the DNA of the tuberculosis causative agent with the allergen. This substance was first administered in small doses and then in large doses to patients, thereby causing the gradual production of antibodies to the pathogen.

“The method proposed by the Swiss is not new,” says Professor Natalia Ilyina. — It's called allergen-specific vaccination. All the know-how of Swiss specialists is that they began to connect the DNA of the tuberculosis pathogen with the allergen itself. Our institute created a similar drug eight years ago, combining the antigen with synthetic polyoxidonium, which additionally stimulates the immune system. Our results are very good. Allergology is a rare science in which our country is far from being at the cutting edge.

As a rule, people are vaccinated against allergies in the autumn-winter period, when there is a minimum amount of irritants in the air. To do this, as a rule, patients are admitted to a hospital for two weeks for a course of injections. This procedure must be repeated for three years in a row, and then, as a rule, patients live for five years without remembering the disease.

The allergy vaccine turned out to be especially effective for household allergens, including dust mites. With the hair of dogs and cats, the situation is much worse due to the structural features of the allergens. So vaccination is carried out only if a person is professionally involved with animals. It would be a shame for a veterinarian with 20 years of experience to leave his job because of a perpetual runny nose and sore throat.

There are, however, approximately 20 percent of patients for whom vaccination does not help. For them, the angriest way remains is to avoid the allergen by all means possible. If we are talking about dust mites, you need to change your bed linen as often as possible, buy special removable mattress covers, and treat the mattress itself with so-called acaricides - chemicals that kill mites and ensure that you sleep alone for three to four months.

Pollen is especially difficult to hide from. To cross Moscow, a person will need to stand in traffic jams for half a day, but pollen does this in half an hour. Moreover, often enemy troops attack the capital, although nothing is blooming in it yet. This means that a good south wind blew straight from the Kursk or Oryol region. Therefore, the most effective way remains to escape to another climate zone. Or a gas mask.

FRESH BLOOD

Allergy is not only a disease of young people, but also a disease of the young. Most often it affects people 20 - 35 years old. With age, the body's metabolism slows down and allergies subside. Perhaps that is why allergies, oddly enough, are very popular among young people. In American student cafes, before looking at the menu, young people always share with each other information about who is allergic to what.

- And for cucumbers?! — the student blinks her eyes in surprise. - And for raspberry jam, and for condoms?! “And immediately the young man receives a well-deserved share of almost maternal care.

“It’s interesting that almost half of the patients who come to see us in full confidence that they have a terrible allergy are actually not sick with this disease at all,” says Professor Natalia Ilyina. — Let me give you a simple example: according to surveys, 25 percent of the population believe that they or their children are allergic to some product. And according to medical statistics, in children this figure is 6-8 percent, and in adults it is generally two. Everything else has nothing to do with allergies in our understanding.

Most often, patients confuse food allergies with another scourge - food intolerance, which is associated with the lack of certain enzymes or some other pathology of the gastrointestinal tract. If you are intolerant, most often you do not even need to completely exclude the product from your diet. A real allergy, on the contrary, is not a dose-dependent disease. For a person with a fish allergy, the smell of fish broth is sometimes enough to cause generalized urticaria, bronchospasm, and severe choking. (By the way, this is why in clinics specializing in the treatment of allergies, there is no fish of any kind.) Over time, aggressive forms of allergies are becoming more frequent. And this means colossal losses on medical care, given the working age of patients. Every year, the sick planet spends $12 billion on the purchase of antiallergic drugs. This is a very expensive disease.

Spore Trap

Throughout the civilized world, allergies are recognized as a social disease, that is, a disease that affects the life of society as a whole. In this regard, several years ago the European Union adopted a pan-European program to combat allergies, which implies a separate budget. As you might guess, we have nothing like this. The Institute of Immunology of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation is creating a corresponding national project and is still waiting for support from the state.

Several years ago, on the initiative of immunologists and scientists from the Faculty of Biology of Moscow State University, a monitoring service for the concentration of pollen and fungal spores was organized in Moscow. In several areas, traps were installed - air intakes that take into account the number of particles wandering in the air. Specialists process the information and issue reports similar to news from the front: “The concentration of pollen grains of cereals remains at the same level. Nettle and sorrel are blooming. Plantain is on the way. The content of spores of fungal microorganisms is still low, but in the future it can change in waves. Follow the forecast." At first, these messages were even read out on television along with the weather forecast, and allergy sufferers could take medications in advance or close the windows tightly and stay at home (for many it is really a matter of life and death), but they were soon recognized as unprofitable and disappeared due to lack of sponsors.

“Now more than ever it is necessary to conduct fundamental research in the field of immunology,” says Professor Ilyina. “If scientists know why allergies do occur, primary prevention will become possible and then the wave of childhood allergies that we see today will stop.

In the meantime, the recommendations are rather abstract. For example, doctors recommend not smoking in the presence of a child, since nicotine causes the synthesis of immunoglobulins specific to allergy sufferers, and they advise that in the first year of life the child must be fed breast milk (which is fundamentally impossible for a thirty-year-old person).

By the way, Nastya Glebova still took revenge on her boyfriend. When he brought her a bouquet of roses, she jumped back in horror, shouting “allergy!” She did not talk about her new allergy to mouse dander.

HIDDEN THREAT

In the modern world, allergies can occur to anything. Sometimes for the most inappropriate things...

Sea Allergy to clean water is extremely rare, but the body can react to plants and microorganisms living in the sea, to industrial waste that contaminates coastal waters.

Money Most often, allergies are caused by euro coins. They contain 25% nickel - the strongest allergen, which is the first among the metals that cause a skin reaction.

Operation Computers made of plastic may cause an allergic reaction. The reason for this is the component triphenyl phosphate. Selection begins at a working monitor temperature of 50 degrees.

Condoms Most often in this case we are talking about a reaction to latex or the spermicidal component nonoxynol-9. This can be easily avoided by using special hypoallergenic condoms.

Beer The body reacts to hops, yeast or malt. For people prone to food allergies, it is better to choose well-refined varieties and stay away from unfiltered and “live” drinks.

Husband/wife Allergy to another person is an extremely rare occurrence. Several isolated cases have been described around the world. Allergens include microparticles of saliva, skin, sweat evaporation, hairs...

Photo by ULLSTEIN/VOSTOCK PHOTO

We sneezed at everything