Health NewsFeed #415 CAT ALLERGY
VACCINE
An improved allergy serum for people who are allergic to cat dander is showing promise in clinical tests. Allervax Cat is being tried out at Johns Hopkins and the New England Medical Center. It's a refinement of the older solution which used sterile water and extracts of cat dander. Johns Hopkins professor of medicine Dr. Phil Norman says the new serum requires only a few injections, instead of the usual 30 or more.
We now know the exact structure of the protein in cat dander that people are allergic to, and using that knowledge we can select short segments of the protein and actually make them in the laboratory, synthesize them. This gives us something that is chemically well-defined and easy to use and administer.
Allervax Cat is not yet generally available. Further clinical tests are needed before the Food and Drug Administration can make a final decision, and that may take a few years. Early results show the serum significantly reduces sneezing, itching, inflammation and watery eyes after a month of treatment.
