In a first, 16 year-old youngster undergoes venom immunotherapy in Telangana

Venom immunotherapy accords the youngster protection from the venomous toxins of honey bee and yellow wasp bites

Hyderabad: A 16 year-old youngster, who is vulnerable to several allergies, for the first time in Telangana, underwent a novel treatment known as venom immunotherapy that accords him protection from the venomous toxins of honey bee and yellow wasp bites.

The local boy who lives with his parents in Dubai, with a history of suffering from different types of allergies since childhood with symptoms like shortness of breath, rashes, itching, cold and sneezes, itching of eyes, pain in abdomen, diarrhea for the last 10 years, underwent a specialized allergy test in Hyderabad that confirmed that he was also allergic to toxins from honey bee and yellow wasp bites.

“If you have serious allergy, like the boy, to insect venom and then get stung, your immune system will go into overdrive, leading to symptoms throughout the body including breathing difficulties and losing consciousness, which can anaphylactic or life threatening,” explains senior allergy specialist from Hyderabad, Dr Vyakarnam Nageshwar, who treated the boy.

Dr Vyakarnam and his medical team at Aswini Allergy Centre, Hyderabad administered venom-immunotherapy to the boy. The venom immunotherapy will work on the body’s immunity system so that it no longer overreacts. This is done by giving small doses of venom that gradually increase over a period for several weeks, which can reduce the serious allergic reactions, in case the boy gets stung by the honey bees or yellow wasps in the near future, they explained.

“This is for the first time that such a novel therapy has been administered in Telangana. The gold standard for treatment for honey bee and yellow wasps is Venom Immunotherapy. Through this therapy, we have made sure that the boy will not experience any allergy in case if he is bitten again,” he said.