Allergy and Immunology with Sanitas
People arrive from northern Europe having never had hay fever in their lives, and by their third spring here they are streaming. It is not imagination, and olive pollen is usually the culprit.
Why allergies often start after moving here
People arrive from northern Europe having never had hay fever, and within two or three springs they are streaming. It is not imagination. You are being exposed to plants you never met before, and it takes a few seasons of exposure before the body reacts.
Olive pollen is the big one across Andalusia and much of the south, peaking in May and June, and it floors people who were fine with grass pollen at home. Parietaria, a wall weed, is a serious problem along the Mediterranean coast and has an unusually long season. Cypress hits in late winter, when nobody expects hay fever. Dust mites are worse in humid coastal housing than in centrally heated northern homes.
What testing involves
Usually a skin prick test: small drops on your forearm, a light scratch through each, and twenty minutes waiting to see which ones swell. Uncomfortable rather than painful. Blood tests are used where skin testing is not suitable.
The point is to find out precisely what you react to, because "hay fever" covers dozens of possible triggers and the treatment differs.
Immunotherapy
For people whose allergies are severe, the treatment is desensitisation: tiny controlled doses of the thing you react to, over three to five years, until your immune system stops overreacting. It is given as drops under the tongue or as injections.
It works well for the right patients but it is a long commitment, and the vaccine itself is a medicine, which no Sanitas plan pays for. If your allergist recommends it, check what your policy covers before you start rather than a year in.
Food allergy and anaphylaxis
If you carry an adrenaline pen, make sure someone with you knows where it is and how to use it. Emergency treatment for a severe reaction is covered from day one, with no waiting period, whatever your policy start date.
Where the allergists are
567 clinics across 48 provinces, with 575 named specialists between them – and you can book any of them yourself, without a referral.
- Madrid – 112 clinics, 164 specialists
- Barcelona – 86 clinics, 84 specialists
- Malaga – 40 clinics, 24 specialists
- Valencia – 30 clinics, 30 specialists
- Cadiz – 27 clinics, 16 specialists
- Seville – 25 clinics, 22 specialists
- Cordoba – 18 clinics, 14 specialists
Language at the appointment
Language matters here, because working out what you react to depends on describing when and where symptoms happen. Ask us and we will check who is near you and what languages they work in.
What you pay
Nothing at the clinic on a no-co-payment plan, including testing. A small fixed amount per visit on a co-payment plan, with tests charged separately.
See every Sanitas waiting period in one place, including how switching from another insurer waives nearly all of them.
Find an allergist near you
Browse allergists and immunologists in the Sanitas directory – by province, with addresses, phone numbers and a map.
