Dust mites are the most typical allergen you can find in your home. They are arachnids, little animals from the same family as spiders, invisible to the naked eye and able to reproduce in dust itself.
In our homes, they are mainly found in mattresses, pillows, carpets, bookshelves and, in general, in dusty places. Allergies in one’s house may also depend on the presence of pets, especially cats, or on mushrooms and molds, such as Alternaria, Aspergillus and Cladosporium. These ones may provoke allergies and also make symptoms worse in asthmatic people.

As Professor Giorgio Walter Canonica, Supervisor of Personalized Medicine Center: Asthma and Allergology at Humanitas, told us in an interview: “Even though we don’t know where mushrooms and molds settle in houses, we know that they appear due to excess damp in enclosed spaces. For instance, keeping your windows shut in order to use air conditioning increases risk factors, because the air that circulates is recycled and thus it moves allergens. This is why it is important to keep the filters of AC clean in your home”.

Symptoms of allergies and correct diagnosis

If you are experiencing the typical symptoms of allergies, such as rhinitis (that causes nasal obstruction, running nose and sneezes), you should go to your doctor.
The so-called prick tests may be useful for the diagnosis. They are skin tests that require the injection of tiny quantities of some allergens in the skin. A blood sample will also count IgE immunoglobulins, in order to ascertain the reactions to specific allergens. “In the latest years, clinical practice makes also use of allergy molecular diagnostics. A blood sample will identify 100 to 200 components of the allergen that causes the allergic reaction. This allows us to pinpoint the actual cause of the allergy and enact a dedicated treatment”, Prof. Canonica explains.

Pay attention to room cleaning

Adopting some measures to try to minimize the presence of dust mites in your home may be of great help. For example:

  • Aerate your rooms by frequently opening the windows.
  • Clean rooms and surface thoroughly. For instance, you may use a vacuum cleaner that collects dust mites, or one with a Hepa (efficiency particulate air filter) filter. These devices gather an excellent percentage of allergens.
  • Dust with a dedicated cloth that does not move dust around, thus avoiding its spreading.
  • Avoid carpets, rugs, heavy curtains and tapestries. They gather much dust and, consequently, mites.
  • If possible, prefer leather sofas to fabric ones.
  • Cover mattresses and pillows with anti-mite pads and covers, and wash your bedclothes weekly at 60 degrees.

The treatment of allergies

Therapies for allergies depend on symptoms and on the clinical records of each patient. We consider this case too a personalized medicine one.
“Rhinitis requires anti-histaminic medications or a combination of inhaled steroids with anti-histaminic, in a nasal spray.
Asthma requires instead dedicated medications (put on the market in February), such as tiotropium, a bronchodilator, and monoclonal antibodies. In particular, the most recent one is mepolizumab. It affects a kind of inflammation that is induced by allergic reactions.
Patients with bronchial asthma caused by dust mites will be able to buy at the end of the year an important medication. A pill-based immunotherapy that patients will have to take orally for at least three years”, Professor Canonica said.