Wintertime is cold season: everywhere you look you see people with coughs and colds. However, a flu-like infection is not always behind the complaints. “It often happens that a stuffy nose, breathing difficulties or cough in the winter months are mistaken for symptoms of a cold, when in fact an allergy is the cause,” says Professor Dr. Ludger Klimek, of the Medical Association of German Allergists (ÄDA). The ENT physician and allergist from Wiesbaden reports that he exposes several patients with supposed flu as allergy sufferers every week during the winter half-year.
Allergy or the common cold?
Eleven-year-old Felix had already been suffering from a cold, cough, headache and severe phlegm for six weeks when he visited the practice of specialist Professor Ludger Klimek, accompanied by his mother. The family doctor had previously prescribed three different antibiotics, none of which helped. Even expectorants, cough suppressants and homeopathic preparations only provided Felix with brief relief. The boy was frustrated, as absences from school and his poor condition were by now jeopardizing his grades.
“The mother told me that Felix goes through a protracted ‘cold‘ every year at this time of year,” Klimek reports. “The regular occurrence of the same symptoms at certain times of year or in certain situations is an important clue for the allergy-trained specialist.” Klimek performed an allergy test on Felix and determined the cause of the regularly recurring complaints to be a severe allergy to dust mites and cat dander. “The mite allergy in particular causes complaints such as coughing and rhinitis, which can easily be mistaken for a flu-like infection, especially in the fall at the beginning of the heating season,” Klimek explains.
Allergies can manifest themselves in different ways and have very different causes. For example, pollen, dust mites, animal hair and mold can trigger an allergic rhinitis and itchy eyes (hay fever) in sensitive people. However, asthma with coughing, whistling breathing and shortness of breath can also occur if the bronchial mucosa reacts allergically. In allergic asthma, the airways are narrowed by allergic inflammation because the bronchial mucosa swells, thick mucus forms, and the airway muscles tighten.
Symptoms of respiratory allergies and flu-like infections are similar
Symptoms of respiratory allergies can easily be confused with a flu-like infection. Both conditions often involve runny nose, sneezing, red eyes, coughing, difficulty breathing and fatigue. “Flu-like infections are often accompanied by fever. Allergies, on the other hand, are often accompanied by itching; for example, the nose or eyes may itch. Fever rarely occurs,” says Professor Klimek. Signs of an allergy are also constant discomfort or discomfort that occurs repeatedly in certain situations or at certain times.
Causative allergy therapy helps in the long term
If in doubt, sufferers should consult an ear, nose and throat specialist who specializes in the treatment of allergies. Already from a detailed questioning of the patient, the doctor receives information about whether an allergy or an infection is present. Further clues are provided by the physical examination and laboratory tests. In the case of flu-like infections or a non-allergic cold, the specialist often detects purulent secretions and swollen lymphatic tissue. Allergies can be detected with a skin test. In addition, a blood test reveals increased levels of the immunoglobulin E (IgE) antibodies typical of allergies.
Eleven-year-old Felix is now receiving specific immunotherapy (SIT) with standardized mite allergens, so he will probably not have to miss weeks of school next year because of his allergic “flu.” SIT can treat the cause of the allergy. The therapy accustoms the hypersensitive immune system of allergy sufferers to the allergy triggers in the long term. As a result, in the long term, symptoms are reduced or do not occur at all. In addition, immunotherapy can significantly reduce the risk of developing asthma.
