HAY FEVER

New Zealand Listener, Volume 11, Issue 280, 3 November 1944, Page 16

HAY FEVER

(Written for "The Listener" by Dr, H. B, Turbott, Director of the Division of School Hygiene, Health Dept.)

HE ills we suffer nowadays are occasionally new in time, but mostly-they plagued the peoples of earliest days. We know more now about causes; but when we do not, we have theories.. Our ancestors had theories, too. Take hay fever and asthma; they were simple! They were caused by malignant. demons. It depended on your luck whether you were plagued with masculine or feminine malignant spirits, You had to keep in with everybody, for magic words or looks could bring on hay fever if you displeased someone. Happily, the application of pieces of parchment containing Biblical verses or magic formulae, or the laying on of hands by medicine men or prophets, could accomplish a cure, Unhappily, we have lost this art of simple and easy treatment, and hay fever still descends on us as though malignantly inspired. We are well this instant, the next we are prostrated with violent attacks of sneezing, followed by a free watery discharge from the nose, The eyes may be irritated and pour tears. It is all most upsetting for a while-then it ceases as quickly as it came upon us. Such attacks may last continuously for an hour or more till the victim is completely exhaustedand may recur intermittently for days. It was no wonder the ancients thought of evil spirits, They're in the Air We know now that these evil spirits ‘causing hay fever are manifold protein particles in the atmosphere. They may be pollens of certain grasses, or from blossoms in the garden. They may be animal emanations, or certain fumes, or dusts or moulds floating in the atmosphere or in our homes. Occasionally articles of diet may be implicated as irritants bringing on hay fever. The modern treatment is just as magical as the ancient one — with this difference, that it works when carefully sorted out and applied. When a victim knows from experience the cause of his attacks-and can afford to do so — he can escape by migrating to an area relatively free of the particular cause. For example, the seaside may bring freedom from attack, trees and grasses being scarcer there. The first step is to trace the cause, whereon hangs the cure. This is usually done by scratch testing. The skin of the arm is cleansed, scratched without drawing blood and a small quantity of the suspected cause is lightly rubbed in. A raised weal and redness around it indicates sensitivity, and this particular substance is probably the cause of the attacks. Of course, you are very lucky indeed if you discover the cause at the first attempt. Usually one has to test through many pollens, of trees, grasses and flowers; if these are negative, one goes on to try out animal danders, vegetable and feather dusts, moulds, house dust and common foods, This testing-out process calls for much (continued on next page)

(continued from previous page) patience and persistence on the part of both doctor and patient. If persistence is rewarded and the cause revealed, ,the incriminated protein is made into an injection. The patient is then de-sensitised by injecting him with increasing amounts of the extract at short intervals during the several months preceding his annual or seasonal attacks. And if the actual cause eludes the doctor, a vaccine of mixed proteins may succeed. Should this fail, local nasal treatment at the beginning of the hay fever period helps. So, visit an interested doctor if you are a sufferer from hay fever.