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  - Worldwide Map of Pollen Monitoring Stations
  - EAACI Explains COVID-19
    The COVID-19 pandemic that has shaped our new reality is a result of ever-increasing human intrusion into habitats of wild animals and the close interaction with them. The SARS-COV-2 virus jumped the species barrier and sparked the first human COVID-19 infections. Global mass travel fueled one of the most explosive pandemics in modern history. The COVID-19 virus affects humans in various ways, find out more by watching our video.
    
    Authors
    
    1 Eva Untersmayr, MD, PhD, Assoc. Prof.; Institute of Pathophysiology and Allergy Research, Center for Pathophysiology, Infectiology and Immunology, Medical University of Vienna, Austria
    
    2 Milena Sokolowska, MD, PhD; Swiss Institute of Allergy and Asthma Research, University of Zurich, Switzerland
    
    3 Ioana Agache , MD, PhD, Prof.; Transylvania University, Brasov, Romania
    
    4 Montserrat Alvaro Lozano, MD, PhD. 1) Pediatric Allergy and Clinical Immunology Department, Hospital Sant Joan de Déu, Barcelona, Spain. 2) Institut de Recerca Sant Joan de Déu, Barcelona, Spain. 3) Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
    
    5 Laia Alsina Manrique De Lara, MD, PhD; Clinical Immunology and Primary Immunodeficiencies Unit, Pediatric Allergy and Clinical Immunolgy Department, Hospital Sant Joan de Deu, Barcelona, Spain
    
    6 Elisabeth Angier, MRCGP, MSc; University of Southampton, UK
    
    7 Stefania Arasi, MD, PhD; Pediatric Allergology Unit, Department of Pediatric Medicine, Bambino Gesù Children’s research Hospital (IRCCS), Rome, Italy
    
    8 Sarah Ashley, PhD, Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, Australia
    
    9 Barbara Bohle, Department of Pathophysiology, Division of Immunopathology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
    
    10 Matteo Bonini, Department of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Sciences, Catholic University of Rome, Italy
    
    11 Knut Brockow, MD, Prof., Allergy Unit, Department of Dermatology and Allergy Biederstein, Technical University of Munich, Germany
    
    12 Helen Brough, FRCPCH, PhD; 1) Children’s Allergy Service, Evelina London, Guy’s and St. Thomas’ Hospital, London, UK, 2) Department of Women and Children’s Health, School of Life Course Sciences, King’s College London University, London, UK
    
    13 Thomas Chivato, MD, PhD. Prof.; School of Medicine. University CEU San Pablo, Madrid, Spain.
    
    14 Nicolette W. de Jong, PhD, Assoc. Prof.; ErasmusMC, Internal Medicine, section Allergology & Clinical Immunology, Rotterdam, the Netherlands
    
    15 Stefano Del Giacco, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Cagliari, Caligari, Italy
    
    16 Thomas Eiwegger, MD, Assoc. Prof.; 1) Division of Immunology and Allergy, Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Program, The Department of Pediatrics, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Canada; 2) Research Institute, The Hospital for Sick Children, Translational Medicine, Toronto, Canada; 3)Department of Immunology, The University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.
    
    17 Andrzej Eljaszewicz, PhD; Department of Regenerative Medicine and Immune Regulation, Medical University of Bialystok, Bialystok, Poland
    
    18 Ibon Eguiluz Gracia, Allergy Unit, Hospital Regional Universitario de Malaga. Insituto de Investigacion Biomedica de Malaga (IBIMA) and ARADyAL.
    
    19 Stefanie Eyerich, PhD, Assoc. Prof., Center for Allergy and Environment (ZAUM), Helmholtz Center and Technical University Munich; Germany
    
    20 Wojciech Feleszko, MD, PhD, Assoc. Prof.; Department of Pediatric Respiratory Diseases and Allergy, The Medical University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland.
    
    21 Philippe Gevaert, MD, PhD, Upper Airway Research Laboratory (URL), Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Ghent University Hospital, Belgium
    
    22 Martin Glatz, MD, PhD
    
    23 Cristina Gomez-Casado, PhD; Institute of Applied Molecular Medicine, Hospitals Madrid (HM) Group, San Pablo-CEU University, Madrid, Spain, ARADyAL, RD16/0006/0015, Thematic Network and Cooperative Research Centers, ISCIII, Madrid, Spain
    
    24 Jan Gutermuth
    
    25 Karin Hoffmann-Sommergruber, PhD, Assoc. ; Institute of Pathophysiology and Allergy Research, Center for Pathophysiology, Infectiology and Immunology, Medical University of Vienna, Austria
    
    26 Jozef Janda, Department of Clinical Research‐VPH, Vetsuisse Faculty, University of Bern
    
    27 Rodrigo Jimenez-Siaz, PhD, Assist. ; 1) Dept. Immunology & Oncology, National Center for Biotechnology (CNB-CSIC); 2) McMaster Immunology Research Centre (MIRC), Dept. Pathology & Molecular Medicine, McMaster University
    
    28 Kristina Johansson, PhD
    
    29 Marek Jutel, MD, Prof., 1) Department of Clinical Immunology. Wroclaw Medical University, Wroclaw, Poland; 2) ALL-MED Medical Research Institute, Wroclaw, Poland
    
    30 Sandip Kamath, MSc, PhD; Australian Institute of Tropical Health and Medicine, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland, Australia
    
    31 Edward Knol, PhD, Assoc. Prof.; Depts. Immunology and Dermatology/Allergology, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands
    
    32 Eugenia Korotchenko, MSc.; Department of Biosciences, Paris-Lodron University of Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria
    
    33 Inge Kortekaas Krohn , PhD, Assist. ; SKIN Research group, Department of Dermatology, Universitair Ziekenhuis Brussel/ Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium
    
    34 Susanne Lau, Charité Medical University Berlin, Dpt. of Pediatric Pneumology and Immunology, Germany
    
    35 Maria Luís Marques, MD; Immunoallergology Department, Centro Hospitalar e Universitário do Porto, Porto, Portugal
    
    36 Henry McSorley, MSci, PhD; 1) Centre for Inflammation Research, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK; 2) Cell Signalling and Immunology, School of Life Sciences, University of Dundee, Dundee, UK
    
    37 Liam O’Mahony, PhD; Prof.; Departments of Medicine and Microbiology, APC Microbiome Ireland, National University of Ireland, Cork, Ireland
    
    38 Oscar Palomares, PhD, Assoc. Prof.; Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, School of Chemistry, Complutense University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
    
    39 Isabella Quinti, MD Department of Molecular Medicine, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome
    
    40 Carmen Riggioni-Viquez, MD 1) Allergy and Clinical Immunology, Department of Paediatrics, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore 2) Institut de Recerca Sant Joan de Déu, Barcelona, Spain.
    
    41 Florentina Sava, PhD, Clinical Scientist in Genomics Birmingham Women’s and Children’s Hospital, Birmingham, UK Central and South Genomic Laboratory Hub
    
    42 Mohamed Shamji, Allergy and Clinical Immunology, National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College, London, UK MRC Asthma UK
    
    43 Peter Schmid-Grendelmeier, Dept. Of Dermatology, University Hospital of Zürich
    
    44 Carsten Schmidt Weber, Immunology Unit, Department of Medicine III, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
    
    45 Jürgen Schwarze, MD, PhD, Prof.; Centre for Inflammation Research, Child Life and Health, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
    
    46 Anna Sediva, MD, PhD; Department of Immunology, Motol University Hospital, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic
    
    47 Isabel Skypala, PhD; Royal Brompton & Harefield NHS Foundation Trust, Imperial College, London, UK
    
    48 Hermelijn Smits, PhD; Department of Parasitology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands
    
    49 Sylwia Smolińska, PhD; Department of Clinical Immunology, Wroclaw Medical University, Poland
    
    50 Olympia Tsilochristou, MD, PhD; Allergy Department, Guy’s & St Thomas’ Foundation Trust”
    
    51 Maria Jose Torres, MD, Prof.; Allergy Unit, Regional University Hospital of Malaga-IBIMA-UMA-ARADyAL, Malaga, Spain
    
    52 Margitta Worm, MD, Division of Allergy and Immunology, Dpt Dermatology, Venerology and Allergy, Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin
    
    53 Valerie Verhasselt, Tolérance Immunitaire, Université de Nice Sophia‐Antipolis, Nice, France
    
    https://youtu.be/Xi-yKxn9TRM
  - EAACI Explains Dietary Diversity
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    Good food and nutrition are vital from birth onwards. When it is time to start giving solid food to babies, it is important to introduce all foods as soon as possible from the age of 6 months. Fruits, vegetables, wholegrain cereals and healthy fats have an especially important role to play in developing the gut microbiota and the immune system. This short and informative animated video will show how to give a baby the best start in life.
    
    For additional content on dietary diversity and infant feeding, visit our page: patients.eaaci.org
    
    Authors:
    
    1. J. Skypala, PhD RD
    
    N.W. de Jong, PhD, Assoc. Prof.
    
    B. Vlieg-Boerstra, PhD RD
    
    K. Grimshaw, PhD RD
    
    E. Angier, MRCGP, MSc
    
    E. Untersmayr, MD, PhD
    
    S. Barni, MD
    
    L. O’Mahony, PhD; Prof.
    
    S. Lau, MD
    
    M. Czarnecka-Operacz, MD
    
    S. Del Giacco, MD
    
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZLkt1xkTLM&feature=youtu.be
  - EAACI Explains Vaccination
  - EAACI Explains Food Allergy
Contact

Antibiotics

Antibiotics are prescribed to cure inflammatory diseases such as urinary tract infections or pneumonia. Usually they are very effective. However, like for all medication, the use of antibiotics can give rise to toxic side effects or hypersensitivity reactions (allergic reactions).
Toxic side effects are reactions that are related to both the working mechanism and the dosage of the drug and are predictable. Antibiotics are given when someone has a bacterial infection to kill the bacteria. The problem is that these antibiotics may also kill or diminish the bacteria living in our gut that are actually beneficial to us and subsequently cause reactions such as diarrhea. Most of the times side effects are bothersome but not life threatening. As these reactions are predictable and well-known, no allergy testing is necessary.
Hypersensitivity reactions are reactions that are unpredictable and that are not dose related. If the doctor can demonstrate an involvement of the immune system by a positive skin or laboratory test, the reaction is called an allergy. If an allergic reaction can not be demonstrated by skin test or laboratory test, although the clinical picture is identical and allergy-like, the reaction is called a non-allergic hypersensitivity reaction. These reactions can be severe and even life threatening.
In allergic or non-allergic hypersensitivity reactions the patient may also react to other antibiotics belonging to the same group or sharing a similar structure because of a so called cross reactive mechanism. If an allergic reaction is suspected, skin testing and laboratory tests can be useful for the identification of the culprit drug.
If you or your doctor think you had a hypersensitivity reaction to an antibiotic, it is important to assess whether it truly was a hypersensitivity reaction or not. If you are allergic or had a non-allergic hypersensitivity reaction, you need an allergological workup and advice by a drug allergy expert as to which antibiotics you can safely take as alternatives, should you develop an infection.