Is specific immunotherapy safe and effective in children?

BACKGROUND: The effectiveness and safety of specific immunotherapy (SIT) in allergic diseases such as asthma have been increasingly questioned, some authors practically advocate to eliminating SIT as a therapeutic option for allergic patients, since the risks associated with this form of asthma treatment might be higher than the possible positive effects. OBSERVATIONS: We emphasize that several authors comment on the frequency of reactions to SIT without a sound competence. Therefore, the scope of the present study was to ascertain whether this form of therapy is safe and effective in pediatrics. Denying SIT is a misleading issue since in children not cured with SIT a risk factor for persistence of respiratory symptoms is the ongoing sensitivity to allergens. CONCLUSION: SIT consists in the administration of specific allergic extracts at progressively higher doses, with the aim to achieve a state of immunological tolerance and subsequently a reduction of clinical manifestations caused to the patients by the same allergens. We demonstrate that SIT is safe and effective in children.