Dust mite information site for people with asthma, rhinitis or eczema.

How mites can cause an allergic disease

When people, commonly with a family history of allergy, are repeatedly exposed to house dust mite droppings, they can develop a specific sensitivity to the mite. This sensitivity can lead to allergy. Once allergy is diagnosed, continued exposure to mite allergens can then become a trigger for symptoms of various allergic diseases that can harm lungs, eyes, nose, skin or even hearing.

Allergic diseases associated with house dust mites are, asthma, atopic dermatitis (commonly called eczema), conjunctivitis (sometimes leading to glue ear in children) and chronic rhinitis (referred to as hay fever). Rhinitis is a good example of how mites can cause and trigger chronic allergic disease. Initial contact with mite droppings may have resulted in annoying symptoms of repeated sneezing or a constant runny nose. However, further exposure can lead to a permanently stuffy or ‘bunged-up’ nose and loss of the sense of smell. Once chronic symptoms such as these become established, it is difficult to tell when further allergen exposure takes place because the allergic reactions are joined in one long symptom that in turn reduces the quality of life. Chronic allergic rhinitis is recognized as a risk factor for the development of asthma and otitis media in children. Otitis media has been described as malfunction of the Eustachian tube induced by allergic reactions or depressed mucociliary clearance. Glue ear can result.

Similar pages

1. 2004 – Allergy and allergic disease costs the UK taxpayer over (£) 1 billion each year
2. Glue Ear – Chronic otitis media and the mite.
3. 1987 – Thirty-five doctors, supported by the World Health Organization, describe the house dust mite as a major cause of allergic disease worldwide
4. 2007 – Commonly treated chronic rhinitis impairs quality of life
5. 2011 – The epithelium in asthma, protector or driver of disease – a review

‘Potential allergens stimulate the release of mediators of the allergic response from cells of mast cell lineage in the absence of sensitisation with antigen-specific IgE’ Machado DC, Horton D, Peachell P T, Helm B A, Eur J. Immunol. 1996, 26, pages 2972 to 2980


´Early exposure to house dust mite and cat allergens and development of childhood asthma´, a cohort study’, S.Lau et al, The Lancet, Vol. 356, pages 1392 to 1397


Differences in the antibody response to a mucosal bacterial antigen between allergic and non-allergic subjects, Hales BJ, Pearce LJ, Kusel MMH, Holt PG, Sly PD, Thomas WR, Thorax, 2008; 63: 221-227