This summer the term allergy celebrates its 102nd birthday. Maybe the pollen don’t dance too madly that day because it is a sad day for them. Someone “saw” their side effects. A Viennese of course – who else. In Vienna of course – where else. Clemens von Pirquet (1874 – 1929), a paediatrician, founded together with a colleague the science of allergies. The term was coined by Pirquet. He brought together the Greek words different & action. Although there are other readings. In addition: different & function, changed & action. May there be name readings, an allergic reaction is an allergic reaction. Whom it conquers it doesn’t give time to muse about the name. She or he gets tortured by this overreaction to the immune system on normally “harmless” substances like pollen & co.
Pirquet worked as paediatrician at the Viennese St.-Anna-Kinderspital (children’s hospital). When treating children contracted with diphtheria he was surprised by the side effects of vaccinations. That’s why his research and the allergy definition were at the beginning focused on the so called serum disease. The term allergy was published for the first time in print in the „Münchner Medizinischen Wochenschrift“ (Munich Medical Weekly) 24 July 1906.
Pirquet was aware that not only these vaccination reactions were allergic reactions but that there was an even more diverse range of allergies. Therefore the Berlin Charité could commemorate the 100th birthday of the term allergy with a rich exhibition from the first known symptoms of a cat hair allergy to dark forecasts about the allergic future of mankind in industrialised countries. [2] Read the rest of this entry »
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