Current opinion in allergy and clinical immunology
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Curr Opin Allergy Clin Immunol · Dec 2003
ReviewPrevention of anaphylaxis with ant venom immunotherapy.
Worldwide, eight genera of ants have been associated with sting allergy. Until recently only whole ant body extracts have been used for immunotherapy. The purpose of this review is to examine recent advances in the understanding of ant venom allergy and treatment using venom immunotherapy. ⋯ Ant venom immunotherapy is feasible and highly efficacious. However, the limited geographical distribution of each species presents a major challenge to making venom extracts available for clinical use.