Safety and efficacy of an imported fire ant rush immunotherapy protocol with and without prophylactic treatment.

Background: Hypersensitivity to the sting of the imported fire ant (IFA) is a growing and significant cause of morbidity and mortality in the United States. Conventional immunotherapy with IFA whole body extract (WBE) has been shown to be effective; however, rush immunotherapy (RIT) with IFA WBE has not been studied.

Objective: In this study, we evaluated the safety and efficacy of RIT with IFA WBE and sought to determine whether prophylactic pretreatment with antihistamines and steroids reduces the systemic reaction rate associated with RIT.