Allergic respiratory disease care in the COVID-19 era: A EUFOREA statement

Glenis K Scadding; Peter W Hellings; Claus Bachert; Leif Bjermer; Zuzana Diamant; Philippe Gevaert; Anette Kjeldsen; Jorge Kleine-Tebbe; Ludger Klimek; Antonella Muraro; Graham Roberts; Andreas Steinsvik; Martin Wagenmann; Ulrich Wahn

doi:10.1016/j.waojou.2020.100124

Allergic respiratory disease care in the COVID-19 era: A EUFOREA statement

World Allergy Organ J. 2020 May 16;13(5):100124. doi: 10.1016/j.waojou.2020.100124. eCollection 2020 May.

Authors

Glenis K Scadding¹, Peter W Hellings^{2

3

4}, Claus Bachert^{3

5

6}, Leif Bjermer⁷, Zuzana Diamant^{8

9

10}, Philippe Gevaert³, Anette Kjeldsen¹¹, Jorge Kleine-Tebbe¹², Ludger Klimek¹³, Antonella Muraro¹⁴, Graham Roberts¹⁵, Andreas Steinsvik¹⁶, Martin Wagenmann¹⁷, Ulrich Wahn¹⁸

Affiliations

¹ Royal National TNE Hospital and Department of Immunology, University College London, United Kingdom.
² University Hospitals Leuven, Department of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Leuven, Belgium.
³ Upper Airways Research Laboratory and Department of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Ghent University, Belgium.
⁴ Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
⁵ Division of ENT Diseases, CLINTEC, Karolinska Institute, University of Stockholm, Sweden.
⁶ First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, International Airway Research Center, Guangzhou, China.
⁷ Department of Respiratory Medicine and Allergology, Skane University Hospital, Lund University, Sweden.
⁸ Department of Respiratory Medicine and Allergology, Institute for Clinical Science, Skane University Hospital, Lund University, Lund, Sweden.
⁹ Department of Respiratory Medicine, First Faculty of Medicine, Charles University and Thomayer Hospital, Prague, Czech Republic.
¹⁰ Department of Clinical Pharmacy & Pharmacology, University of Groningen, University Medical Center of Groningen and QPS-NL, Groningen, the Netherlands.
¹¹ Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark.
¹² Allergy & Asthma Center Westend, Outpatient & Clinical Research Center, Berlin, Germany.
¹³ Wiesbaden Center for Rhinology and Allergology, Wiesbaden, Germany.
¹⁴ Food Allergy Referral Centre Veneto Region, Department of Women and Child Health, Padua General University Hospital, Padua, Italy.
¹⁵ David Hide Centre, St Mary's Hospital, Isle of Wight, and University of Southampton, Southampton, United Kingdom.
¹⁶ Akershus University Hospital, Department of Otorhinolaryngology and Head and Neck surgery, Division of Surgery, Norway.
¹⁷ Dept. of Otorhinolaryngology, Düsseldorf University Hospital, Germany.
¹⁸ Charite, Berlin, Germany.

Abstract

Spring and Summer 2020 are unique in that the challenges of care for those suffering from pollen allergy coincide with the COVID-19 pandemic. Several considerations are important to allow optimal care of allergic rhinitis (AR) and asthma and hence prevention of coronavirus spread through sneezing, rhinorrhoea, and coughing. This compact overview of recommendations by the EUFOREA expert teams on allergic airway diseases and allergen-specific immunotherapy (AIT) is based on investigation of the current COVID-19 literature in association with the key words above and shared clinical experience of the experts involved. It deals with similarities and differences between AR and coronavirus infection, specific recommendations for allergic disease care in the COVID-19 era, including guidance on AIT.

Keywords: AIT, allergen-specific immunotherapy; AR, allergic rhinitis; Allergen-specific immunotherapy; Allergy; Asthma; COVID-19; COVID-19, coronavirus disease 2019; Control; EUFOREA, European Forum for Research and Education in Allergy and Airway Diseases; INS, intranasal corticosteroids; NSAID, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug; Rhinitis; SAR, seasonal allergic rhinitis; Smell and taste; Symptoms; Treatment.