Hay fever & pine trees - are they connected?

[Jody]

About 5 years ago I had a terrible eye infection around March/April time after a holiday abroad. My doctor referred me to the eye hospital and I underwent a number of investigative visits. At first they thought it was allergic conjunctivitis - but eventually decided it was hay fever. As for the cause ..... I wasn't given a clue. However, at the time we had pine trees in our garden and also where I went on holiday there were pine trees - coincidence? Not sure - we live no where near pine trees now and althougth I still get hay fever the symptoms are less severe. What I'm puzzled about is the pine trees - I didn't think pine trees pollenated like other trees. Can the experts shed any light? Also, shoudl I steer clear of pine trees or could I have become aclimatised now? What I want to do is to avoid any reoccurence of the viscious attacks on my eyes that I experienced before ... any help or guidance would really be appreciated.

Jody

PS the only symptoms I get are runny and sometimes very pussy eyes.

[Dr Helen Brough]

Dear Jody,

Allergic conjunctivitis can be part of the spectrum of hay-fever symptoms. Usually in allergic conjunctivis the eyes are runny, itchy and red. The eyes do not usually have pus except for a rare condition called veratokernal conjunctivitis which is usually becasue of tree pollen and classically causes a white stringy discharge from the eyes. It would be important to get a bacterial swab of your eyes the next time you have these symptoms as if may be infection that is causing this rather than allergy.

That said pine tree pollen can cause hay-fever symptoms however it is a rare tree pollen allergen as pine tree pollen is quite heavy and thus does not remain aerosolised. Other tree pollens such as birch, alder, hazel which are not so visible remain aerosolised and thus casue the majority of spring-time hayfever in the UK. The best way to find out for sure it to get tested for tree pollen allergies by a specialist in allergies. Allergists can test for individual tree pollens using skin prick tests although pine tree pollen may be harder to get hold of for testing as it is such a rare allergy.

Best wishes,

Dr Helen Brough