Currently, there are two types of cedar pollinosis, which affects about 2500 million people in Japan, symptomatic treatment that relieves the symptoms with drugs and immunotherapy that aims to cure the symptoms.Immunotherapy involves injecting the causative substance (allergen) into the body little by little to improve the constitution, and although insurance is applied, the pain of injection and continuous hospital visits have been issues.

　Therefore, what is currently attracting attention is "sublingual immunotherapy," which was newly covered by insurance from October 2015.Cedar pollen extract is administered to the back of the tongue and swallowed after 10 minutes. Not only does it eliminate the need for injections and hospital visits, but it also has a low incidence of side effects and is highly safe.It is said that it has already been used as an insurance medical treatment in Europe and the United States, and its effects have been established.

　Chiba University Hospital has been investigating the preventive effect in clinical trials since 2014, considering that this treatment method is also effective for prevention, and is recruiting investigators in 2016 as well.The subjects were 18 people aged 65 to under 100 who did not have cedar pollinosis. At home, they contained cedar pollen sublingual extract in their mouth once a day for 1 minutes, wrote a symptom diary, and conducted blood sampling and skin tests at the time of visit. do.Applications are accepted by the end of October 1, and details are posted on the Otorhinolaryngology / Head and Neck Oncology website.

　Although the number of hospitals that provide sublingual immunotherapy is limited, Chiba University has set up a specialized outpatient clinic and is currently treating more than 30 patients.It is important to start treatment by around November, three months before pollen dispersal, and continue for at least two years.