Impact of quarantine and face masks on ragweed‐induced oculorhinits during the COVID‐19 pandemic in Northern Italy

Impact of Preventive Measures on Subjective Symptoms and Antigen Sensitization against Japanese Cedar, Cypress Pollen and House Dust Mites in Patients with Allergic Rhinitis: A Retrospective Analysis in the COVID-19 Era

“…The present findings are in line with the recent reports in other countries describing a reduction in the subjective burden of screened nasal symptoms that are due to seasonal or perennial allergic rhinitis after the adoption of anti-COVID-19 measures [6,7,16]. Mengi et al evaluated the use of face masks on AR symptoms in 50 pollen allergy patients who were compulsorily using face masks due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Turkey [6].…”

“…They found that the rate of participants with severe-moderate nasal symptoms decreased significantly during the pandemic with the use of face masks, from 92% (46/50) to 56% (28/50), and the corresponding rate of ocular symptoms decreased significantly from 60% (30 patients) to 32% (16 patients). An investigation conducted in Northern Italy examined the effects of quarantine and face-masking policies on nasal and ocular symptoms in a pool of 124 patients suffering from ragweed allergy [16], and the results demonstrated that the overall burden of oculorhinitis decreased significantly during the 2020 ragweed season. Reductions in the use of the common anti-allergic medications, such as oral antihistamines and nasal steroids, were also observed.…”

Use of face masks and allergic rhinitis from ragweed: Why mention only total pollen count and not air pollution levels?

“…With regard to ocular symptoms, in our "real-world" study, the improvement with the use of masks in 2020 was modest or not significant compared to 2019, consistently with Dubini et al 1 The persistence of ocular symptoms, compared to the improvement of the nasal ones (as reported by the authors), demonstrates the effect of ragweed despite the lower pollination levels. However, we believe that this cannot be considered as an evidence that the amount of ragweed was enough to trigger respiratory symptoms, in the absence of the effects induced by air pollutants (Figure 1).…”

“…In fact, pollens and pollutants worsen the symptoms of allergic rhinitis through several mechanisms (mutually correlated) such as climate changes, effects on plants/pollens and on human airways, with a synergistic effect in increasing sensitization and inflammation [2][3][4] (Figure 1). Unfortunately, Dubini et al 1 did not mention the levels of environmental pollutants in the geographical area where patients lived during the study period.…”

“…We read with interest the article from Dubini et al 1 showing that "massive face masks usage during the COVID-19 pandemic may have acted as an effective preventive measure in patients allergic to ragweed with severe rhinitis." We agree on the usefulness of face masks in the prevention of respiratory allergy but, in our opinion, two key points have been neglected in the study and should be added to the other limitations already recognized by the authors.…”