Task forces are projects that deal with specific topics that are relevant, controversial or new in the field. All EAACI members can apply for a specific task forces in alignment with the chair and secretary of a specific section or interest group.
All task forces are supported by EAACI and have been approved by the Executive Committee. Please find the list of active EAACI task forces below.
For any questions, please do not hesitate to contact science@eaaci.org
Please click here to see the Task Force regulations
Task forces are projects that deal with specific topics that are relevant, controversial or new in the field. All EAACI members can apply for a specific task forces in alignment with the chair and secretary of a specific section or interest group.
All task forces are supported by EAACI and have been approved by the Executive Committee. Please find the list of active EAACI task forces below.
For any questions, please do not hesitate to contact science@eaaci.org
Please click here to see the Task Force regulations
- Asthma
- Allergic Diseases
- Allergy Diagnosis & System Medicine
- Allergen Immunotherapy
- Basic and Clinical Immunology
- Dermatology
- Drug Allergy
- Environmental & Occupational Allergy
- ENT
- Food Allergy

Section: Asthma
Chair: Lucia Rijssenbeek-Nouwens
Secretary: Karin Fieten
High altitude climate treatment
Chair: Ibon Eguiluz
Secretary: Ioana Agache
Organ-specific allergen challenges in a united airways context
Working Group: Allergy, Asthma and Sports
Chair: Oliver Price
Secretary: Maia Rukhadze
Diagnosis and management of allergic and respiratory disease in sports


Although adolescents and young people are regarded as a healthy age group, death rates due to food allergy reactions and asthma are highest at this age. Furthermore, healthcare resources are not focused on this age group although this is a critical period for the development of allergic diseases. Besides being life threatening, allergic diseases such as allergic rhinitis and atopic dermatitis can impair work and school performances and negatively impact quality of life, self-esteem and identity in young people.
Section: Pediatrics
Chair: Graham Roberts
Secretary: Marta Vazquez Ortiz
Relevant literature:
- Pinart, M. et al. Systematic review on the definition of allergic diseases in children: the MeDALL study
- Roberts, G. et al. Development of a quality-of-life assessment for the allergic child or teenager with multisystem allergic disease
Allergic diseases in adolescents and young people
Chair: Dermot Ryan
Secretary: Rosan Meyer
The roles of non allergy physician specialists in the management of allergic disorders
Section: Allied health and primary care
Chair: Emilia Vassilopoulou
Secretary: Inger Kull
Diagnosis and management of allergic disease – the added value of allied health professionals
Chair: Helen Brough
Secretary: Eva Untersmayr
Scoping the needs and developing video resources for the public
Section: Pediatric
Chair: Daniel Munblit
Secretary: Mary Jane Marchisotto
Perceptions, beliefs, attitudes, and decision making in parents of children with allergic diseases

Both human patients and domestic animals, such as dogs, cats and horses, suffer from allergic diseases. Often people and their animals share the same environment, respond to the same allergens and have similar clinical symptoms. Therefore, both human and veterinary allerologists (and their patients) could benefit from studying similarities and differences between allergies in humans and animals.
The Task force (TF) on “Allergens in veterinary medicine” started in 2013 with the aim to provide comprehensive overview of allergens implicated in allergic diseases in domestic animals. After a publication of a position paper on allergens in veterinary medicine in Allergy Journal, the task force decided to broaden its scope and produce a series of review/position papers comparing allergic diseases in humans and animals, covering pathogenesis, allergens involved, clinical presentation, diagnostic tools and treatment as a reference for both human and veterinary allergologists. So far, comparative position papers were published in Allergy on allergens, on allergen immunotherapy, on comparing food allergy, and on comparing insect hypersensitivities in people and animals. Currently, the TF is planning to work on a review/position paper on biologicals as treatment option in human and veterinary atopic skin diseases, and a review about comparing the microbiome development of pets and people and the impact on the development of allergic diseases.
Chair: Isabella Pali-Schöll
Secretary: Douglas DeBoer
Publications:
Pali-Schöll et al 2019
EAACI position paper: Comparing insect hypersensitivity induced by bite, sting, inhalation or ingestion in human beings and animals
Mueller et al 2018
Allergen immunotherapy in people, dogs, cats and horses – differences, similarities and research needs
Pali-Schöll et al 2017
Comparing immediate‐type food allergy in humans and companion animals—revealing unmet needs
Mueller et al 2015
Allergens in veterinary medicine
2017 Pali-Schöll et al.
2018 Mueller et al.
Comparative allergology

A placebo is a substance that does not have any therapeutic value. Commonly, placebos are administered in clinical trials to the control set of patients (control group). In this way, the effects of the drug being tested on a certain patient group can be compared with the control group to determine the efficiency of the drug. In certain trials, the placebo groups have shown improvement of the disease despite not being prescribed a therapeutic compound. This phenomenon is called the placebo effect and is harmful for the outcome and conclusions of the trial because it impairs determining the real benefit caused by the active component.
In allergen immunotherapy (AIT) there is a quite a large report of placebo effects, increasing the need to rethink the design of AIT clinical trials, including the selection of the placebo.
Together, the group of experts in this task force aim to review the basis of placebo effects in AIT and investigate the relevance of placebo effects in these clinical trials.
Interest Group: Allergen Immunotherapy
Chair: Oliver Pfaar
Relevant literature:
- Frew, A. & Pfaar O. Placebo effects in allergen immunotherapy: an experts' opinion
- Narkus, A. et al. The placebo effect in allergen-specific immunotherapy trials
- Frew, A. et al. Assessment of specific immunotherapy efficacy using a novel placebo score-based method
After a quick run down memory lane, Sergio Bonini explains the placebo effect, most recent discoveries and exciting suggestions to circumvent this problem in AIT clinical trials.
Placebo effect in allergen immunotherapy

Interest Group: Allergen Immunotherapy
Chair: Jasper Kappen
Secretary: Oliver Pfaar
Relevant literature:
- Jutel M. et al. International consensus on allergy immunotherapy
- Pfaar O. et al. Recommendations for the standardization of clinical outcomes used in allergen immunotherapy trials fro allergic rhinoconjunctivitis: an EAACI position paper
- Pfaar O. et al. Clinical trials in allergen immunotherapy: current concepts and future needs
Clinical outcomes from allergen immunotherapy in asthma
This task force not only aims to address the standardization of AECs but has also, in a previous study, pin-pointed that standardization of "hybrid"-trials in AIT needs further clinical validation. Together with international scientists, clinicians, representatives from EMA and FDA, the main aim of this task force is to elaborate the principle of a multicenter "hybrid"-trial in AIT.
Secretary: Petra Zieglmayer
Relevant literature:
- Pfaar, O et al. Allergen exposure chambers: harmonizing current concepts and projecting the needs for the future - an EAACI position paper
Allergen challenge chambers
Chair: Adam Chaker
Secretary: Mohamed Shamji
Allergen immunotherapy adherence
Phase II: In a next step, an international cooperation of allergologists, aerobiologists and environmental informatics experts demonstrated the robustness and sensitivity of the aforementioned season defintions in a retrospective analysis of pollen count data from up to 40 pollen monitoring stations in Germany over five consecutive years (2012-2016) (#2).
Ref:#1: Pfaar O, Bastl U, Berger U et al.: Definiing pollen exposure times for clinical trials of allergen immunotherapy for pollen-induced rhinoconjunctivitis – an EAACI position paper. Allergy 2017; 72: 713-722
#2: Karatzas K, Riga M, Berger U , Werchan M, Pfaar O, Bergmann KC: Computational validation of the recently proposed pollen season definition criteria. Allerry 2017: doi 10.1111/all. 13255
Chair: Oliver Pfaar
Secretary: Christian Bergmann
Thresholds of allergen exposure in allergen immunotherapy outcome analysis

Allergy is already the most common chronic disease in children and young adults, and it keeps increasing worldwide. It is clear that the burden of allergic diseases is so large that it cannot be met globally by allergy specialists alone. The support of primary care physicians is indispensable in the management, treatment and diagnosis of these diseases. However, primary care clinicians are not trained adequately to manage allergic patients, creating a need to establish specialized education in allergy. Many medical postgraduate training programs, for example, have been established to allow the development of competencies in the diagnosis and management of allergic diseases. Nevertheless, these should always cover the latest hallmarks in the field. Allergen immunotherapy (AIT) is an example of a groundbreaking treatment in the field of allergy and this Task Force will investigate the knowledge of primary care specialists in the field. The goal is to discover if this important treatment, AIT, is being provided across Europe adequately and make recommendations to better identify in which cases the patient should be referred to specialist care. With this work, the Task Force hopes to get a solid understanding of the knowledge on AIT by primary care specialists and address their needs and gaps to support better allergy treatment.
Interest Group: Allied Health and Primary Care
Chair: Gawlik Radoslaw
Secretary: Bertine Flokstra-de Blak
Relevant literature:
- Ryan, D. et al. Challenges in the implementation of the EAACI AIT guidelines: A situational analysis of current provision of allergen immunotherapy
European awareness and practice in allergen immunotherapy
Working Group: Insect venom hypersensitivity
Chair: Gunter Sturm
Secretary: Elisa Boni
Rare insect allergy
Chair: Mohamed Shamji
Secretary: Montserrat Alvaro Lozano
Candidate biomarkers for allergen immunotherapy in adults and children
Working Group: Insect venom hypersensitivity
Chair: Hanneke Oude Elberink
Secretary: Merel Onnes
Insect venom allergy and mastocytosis


The term AllergoOncology (AO) describes the interesting interface between allergies, IgE responses, and Th2 immunity, with cancer development. The establishment of a Task Force on this exciting and continuously evolving topic in EAACI is timely and appropriate. Previous AO activities have included a milestone position paper (Allergy, 2008), two International Conferences on AllergoOncology, a book initiative, “IgE and Cancer” (Humana Press, Springer, 2010), and a key Symposium-in-Writing initiative incorporating 10 peer-reviewed manuscripts on AllergoOncology published by key researchers in the field (Cancer Immunology, Immunotherapy, 2012)
The AO task force aims to serve as an interphase between the disciplines of oncology, allergy and Th2 immunity. The topics of this AO Task Force session will cover basic, translational and clinical research, and will also encompass epidemiology, comparative oncology research, clinical observations and clinical studies, including novel vaccination and immunotherapy approaches harnessing IgE functions to target cancer. This important endeavor will bring basic, clinical scientists and clinicians together interested in the interdisciplinary links between allergies and cancer and will support interdisciplinary links, exchange of knowledge and advances in both fields. At present, this is the first AO platform worldwide.
See our position papers "AllergoOncology – the impact of allergy in oncology: EAACI position paper" and "AllergoOncology: Opposite outcomes of immune tolerance in allergy and cancer“.
Aims:
- To establish a platform for regular exchange of scientific achievements in the AO area.
- To bring basic, clinical scientists and clinicians together interested in the interdisciplinary approach between allergies and cancer.
- To cover educational aspects, by e.g. organizing workshops, Spring Schools and poster-workshops with students and medical trainees as the main targets, and to also engage with clinically-active colleagues and clinical scientists.
- To actively and regularly communicate scientific advances and achievements of the field.
- To engage with oncology societies with the aim of attaching AO satellite symposia and workshops to them.

Pre-TaskForce Meeting at EAACI annual conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, 2014 - From left to right: Hannah Gould, Judit Fazekas, Sophia Karagiannis, Erika Jensen-Jarolim, Josef Singer, Jozef Janda, Melanie Plum, Edzard Spillner

The faculty of the AllergoOncology Task Force meeting has continuously grown until 2018
Find our list of experts here.
AllergoOncology
Chair: Madeleine Rådinger, Sweden
Secretary: Susanne Krauss-Etschmann, Germany
MicroRNAs in allergy and asthma
Chair: Michelle Epstein
Secretary: Mario Noti
Animal models of allergic disease

Biologicals are therapeutics that are synthesized by living organisms and directed against a specific determinant, for example, a cytokine or receptor. In inflammatory, autoimmune and allergic diseases, biologicals have revolutionized the treatment of several immune-mediated disorders. However, use of biologicals does not have the same impact in the treatment of different diseases. For example, while successful in treating severe allergic and refractory eosinophilic severe asthma, they are not as successful treating chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). For that reason, it is important to be aware of the alternative treatments when a certain disease does not respond to biologicals therapy.
Section: Basic and Clinical Immunology
Chair: Cristina Stellato
Secretary: Franziska Roth-Walter
Relevant literature:
- Roth-Walter F. et al. Comparing biologicals and small molecule drug therapies for chronic respiratory diseases: an EAACI task force on immunopharmacology position paper
Non-biological therapeutic approaches in allergy and clinical immunology

Section: Basic and Clinical Immunology
Chair: Liam O'Mahony
Secretary: Carina Venter
Relevant literature:
- Venter, C. et al. Nutritional aspects in diagnosis and management of food hypersensitivity - the dietitians role
- Mazzocchi, A. et al. The role of nutritional aspects in food allergy: prevention and management
- Marcos, A. et al. Changes in the immne system are conditioned by nutrition
Nutritional factors in immunomodulation
Chair: Eva Untersmayr
Secretary: Milena Sokolowska
Public outreach for immunological mechanisms in allergies and asthma
Several guidelines exist for diagnostic workup in older children with asthma, or address only limited range of issues and such EAACI recommendations are lacking for wheezing infants and preschoolers. To address this knowledge gap and vast professional interest, we havestablished a committee of pediatricians, allergy specialists, and immunologists, with clinical and research experience in preschool wheezing as well as clinicians who are trained in systematic reviews to develop an evidence-based approach for the diagnostic evaluation and management of preschool wheezing.
This is a European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology - sanctioned Task Force, which has identified clinical questions and controversies relevant to diagnosis and management wheezy preschoolers. It is conducted by WG on Infections with collaboration with Sections: Pediatrics and Immunology.
Chair: Wojciech Feleszko
Co-chair: Tuomas Jartti
Recommendations for diagnosis and management of preschool wheeze
and opportunities regarding eicosanoid pathway. In this task force, we aim to conduct a comprehensive state of the art review on the role of eicosanoids in the pathogenesis of allergies and asthma and their potential as targets for prevention and therapy of allergic diseases.
Chair: Grzegorz Woszczek
Secretary: Milena Sokolowska
Eicosanoids in the treatment of asthma and allergic diseases
Section: Basic and clinical immunology
Chair: Rodrigo Jiménez-Saiz
Secretary: Henry McSorley
Lay summary for EAACI position papers
Working Group: Infections
Chair: Gerdien Tramper
Secretary: Cristina Boccabella
Conscious and rational use of antibiotics in allergic diseases
Working Group: Infections
Chair: Joana Vitte
Secretary: Luc Colas
Diagnosis and therapeutic management of allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis (ABPA)


Section: Dermatology
Chair: Karoline Krause
Secretary: Margarida Goncalo
Relevant literature:
- Kolkhir, P. et al. Treatment of urticarial vasculitis: A systematic review
Diagnostic criteria for urticarial vasculitis
force is to provide evidence on whether the daily use of topical treatments soon after birth (before the onset of AD) and for the first months of life could reduce the occurrence of AD and/or its severity, thus representing a low cost, easy to apply, safe and effective approach for the primary prevention of AD and atopic march, at least in some phenotypes.
Chair: Elena Galli
Secretary: Pasquale Comberiati
Targeting the skin barrier in atopic dermatitis
Chair: Charlotte G Mortz
Secretary: Barbara Ballmer-Weber
Food allergy in children with atopic dermatitis


Gastrointestinal diseases are frequently associated with an inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract. In these types of diseases, anti-acid drugs which decrease acidic secretions are widely used to alleviate the symptoms. H2 receptor antagonists (2RA), for example, make the cells (parietal cells) responsible for acid secretion less responsive to stimuli thus decreasing acidity, while proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) block the final step in gastric acid secretion, halting all acid secretion.
Interest Group: Drug Allergy
Chair: Sevim Bavbek
Secretary: Patrizia Bonadonna
Relevant literature:
- Özdemir S. et al. Analysis of the factors associated with diagnostic skin test positivity in immediate-type hypersensitivity reactions due to proton pump inhibitors
- Untersmayr E. Acid suppression therapy and allergic reactions
- DeMuth K. et al. Relationship between treatment with antacid medication and the prevalence of food allergy in children
Proton pump inhibitor and antacid drugs allergy

Chemotherapeutic drugs are widely used in the treatment of a variety of cancers. Some chemotherapeutic drugs are also called antineoplastic when they are designed to prevent or inhibit the development of a tumor. The use of these drugs is associated with secondary effects that range from mild gastrointestinal symptoms, cough, transient rash and itching, to life-threatening reactions such as severe cytopenia and anaphylaxis. Hence there is an increased need to improve the diagnostic tools and management of hypersensitivity reactions (HRSs) to antineoplastic agents.
Interest group: Drug Allergy
Chair: Mauro Pagani
Secretary: Sevim Bavbek
Relevant literature:
- Shepherd GM. Hypersensitivity reactions to chemotherapeutic drugs
- Castells MC. Hypersensitivity to antineoplastic agents
- Syrigou E. et al. Hypersensitivity reactions to antineoplastic agents: an overview
Hypersensitivity reactions to antineoplastic agents
Chair: Annick Barbaud
Secretary: Lene Heise Garvey
Drug provocation tests
-State recommendations on diagnosis and management, based on available evidences data and on panel consensus experts in the field of hypersensitivity reactions to AEDs in children
Chair: Marina Atanaskovic-Markovic
Secretary: Francesca Mori
Children's hypersensitivity to antiepileptic drugs

Air quality has a detrimental effect on health and allergic diseases and the presence of pollen in the air has a significant impact on allergic symptoms. Being able to monitor the presence and quantities of pollen and fungal spores in the ambient air would considerably improve the prevention of allergic diseases. In order to do so, aerobiologists can use ambient air quality monitoring to detect biological particles (pollen and fungal spores) in the air. However, unlike the detection of non-biological components (ozone, nitrogen oxides, etc.), monitoring of biological particles in the ambient air is not frequently publicly funded and the data is not freely available. To address this important issue, this task force has made a review of the pollen monitoring stations throughout the world and created an interactive visualization of these stations (see below).
Interest group: Environmental and Occupational Allergy
Chair: Jeroen Buters
Secretary: Celia Antunes
Relevant literature:
- Buters, JTM. et al. Pollen and spore monitoring in the world
Contributors:
Project managers: Celia Antunes, Jeroen Buters
Database building: Ana Galveias, Celia Antunes, Jose Oteros, Jeroen Buters
Interactive map development and administrator: Jose Oteros
Members of the task force: C. Antunes, M. Thibaudon, A. Galveias, J. Oteros, C. Galan, M. Werchan, and J. Buters
Map of the world's pollen monitoring stations
Chair: Gianna Moscato
Secretary: Monika Raulf
Relevant literature:
- Raulf M, et al. Gender-related aspects in occupational allergies - secondary publication and update
Gender and occupational allergy (GOA)
Working Group: Aerobiology and pollution
Chair: Mario Olivieri
Secretary: Carmen Galan
Airborne fungal allergy

Working Group: Ocular Allergy
Chair: Banu Bozkurt
Secretary: Andrea Leonardi
Drug-induced periocular and ocular surface disorders
Section: ENT
Chair: Ludger Klimek
Secretary: Philippe Gevaert
Endotyping of chronic rhinosinusitis and nasal polyps (CRSwNP)
Working Group: Ocular Allergy
Chair: Banu Bozkurt
Secretary: Vibha Sharma
The burden of impaired vision secondary to ocular allergy in Europe
Secretary: Helen Brough
Eustachian tube dysfunction: the role of immunity and allergy

Food allergy is a field where significant therapeutic improvements have been achieved in the last decade. In the last EAACI guidelines on Food AIT, this therapeutic modality was found to be effective to desensitize patients in milk, egg and peanut allergy. Beyond the concept of desensitization, in almost every trial, different thresholds are preestablished to define what will be considered a therapeutic success or failure of the intervention. This heterogeneity in outcomes definitions seriously jeopardizes the comparability of results from different sources.
Objectives:
Evaluate clinical efficacy outcomes of Food AIT.
Understand how the use of different outcomes can impact on the reported efficacy of food AIT trials.
To identify clinical outcomes relevant for patients
Produce recommendations on what efficacy outcomes are to be used in future AIT trials
Current structure:
In order to achieve these objectives, the work has been splitted into 3 different packages:
WP1: Literature review to evaluate what clinical efficacy outcomes have been used so far and make a comprehensive evaluation of the pros/cons of each of them
WP2: Assessment of the impact of using different definitions of efficacy (linked to WP 1) in a set of real patients who participated in previous peanut OIT trials.
WP3: Patient´s survey to gather patient´s perspective on their view of Food AIT relevant clinical outcomes
Section: EAACI Pediatric Section
Chair: Pablo Rodríguez del Río; Secretary: Montserrat Fernandez Rivas
Members: Paul Turner; Stefania Arasi; Raphaëlle Bazire; Brian Vickery; Katharina Blümchen; Audrey Dunn Galvin; Antoine Deschildre, Carmelo Escudero; Giovanni Pajno; Sabine Schnadtt; Marta Vázquez-Ortiz; Wesley Burks; Anna Nowak-Wegrzyn; Matthew Greenhawt; Carmen Riggioni; Nandinee Patel
Clinical Outcomes in food-AIT trials Harmonization (CO-FAITH)
Interest Group: Food Allergy
Chair: Paul Turner
Secretary: Alexandra Santos
Food allergen thresholds
Interest Group: Food Allergy
Chair: Alberto Alvarez-Perea
Secretary: Alexandra Figueira Santos