EAACI INTEREST GROUP ON IMMUNOTHERAPY
Annual Business Meeting
Date: 14 June 2004
Place: Amsterdam, The Netheralnds
The EAACI Interest Group (IT IG) on Immunotherapy Annual Business Meeting (ABM) was held during the Annual Congress of the EAACI, European Academy of Allergology and Clinical Immunology, in Amsterdam on Tuesday 14th June 2004.
The Chairman of the IT IG Dr Emilio Alvarez Cuesta (EAC) chaired the meeting.
The Secretary of the EAACI IT IG Dr Lone Winther (LW) acted as the Secretary.
9 members of the IT IG attended.
I. Welcome by EAACI
II. Approval of the minutes from the Paris 2003
ABM: approved without changes
III. Review of the activities
a. Website:
Report: Daniel Caillot ( DC), France, reported that EAACI Website has been widely used since it was launched on 8 June 2003 during the EAACI Congress in Paris. No actual number of visits to the IT IGs are available.
There has been action to get the EAACI Position Paper on Immunotherapy and Hymenoptera Immunotherapy, published in Allergy in 1993, and the WHO Position Paper published in Allergy in 1998 on the website for downloading. There has been technical and economical problems and the position papers are not yet at the website.
The planned link to the ARIA Website is not yet established.
There has been some discussion about the legal aspects of using material from authors.
Comments: It was proposed to look for a sponsor to support the financial aspect of position papers on the website. There was an agreement that a personal accept from authors before lauching material to the website was sufficient.
b. Educational Programme Task Force ( TF ):
Report: EAC reported that the TF had a union in Madrid to complete the 2nd draft of the “Standard for practical allergen-specific immunotherapy”. Aproximately 80% of the paper is complited and now circulating among the members. The plan is to release the paper (October 2004) to the national societies and reference group appointeD by the Executive Committee for comments. The goal is to present the final edition for the Executive Committee in 2005.
Comments: Participants of the ABM asked if the paper were an update of the 1993 position paper, which would be relevant as this position paper is old and not up to date. EAC answered that the report did not intend to be a new position paper. The participants proposed to EAC, that the part concerning allergen standardization should be compliant with the regulatory “forhold” for allergen extracts.
c. European Immunotherapy Fatalities Survey:
Report: EAC reported that Dr Ana Beristein (AB), Spain, has sent a short survey (6 items) to 36 National Societies of EAACI, only 3 had answered until the ABM. The short survey was send my e-mail to 1846 EAACI members, with answer from 125 (7.5%). The plan is to try again, but if the percentage of answers is to low, the project will be stopped.
Comments: It was proposed to ask the national authorities as well as the manufacturers for data. But the impression is that no complete data will be available.
d. Relationship with the EAACI Newsletter.
There has been no report to the EAACI Newsletter.
IV. Action items 2004-2005:
a. Website :
EV continues to be the Webmaster of EAACI IT IG and DC the Techical Assistant. DC/EV will contact possible sponsors in order to get position papers on the website.
b. Educational Programme Task Force:
The plan is to release the paper “Standard for practical allergen-specific immunotherapy” (October 2004) to the national societies and reference group appointed by the Executive Committee for comments. The goal is to present the final edition for the Executive Committee in 2005.
c. European Immunotherapy Fatalities Survey:
AB/EAC contact national societies, national authorieties and national allergen extract manufacturers for a short survey regarding fatalities to immunotherapy. The responding participants will receive the phase 2 David Bernstein questionaire. If sufficient data the results of the Fatalities Survey should be published in scientific allergological journal. AB and EAC continue to work.
d. Relationship with the EAACI Newsletter:
It was decided that the Secretary of EAACI IT IG continues to be the contact person also in the future.
e. Other Action Items to be dicussed:
It was decided to work for a higher standard of accepted abstracts and oral presentations. The goal is to raise the interest of allergen specific immunotherapy which should be accompained with high quality research.
No other business was discussed.
VI. Closure of the EAACI IT IG ABM by EAC at 11.45
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