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AAP News Vol. 14 No. 9 September 1998, p. 1 © 1998 American Academy of Pediatrics
The field of allergy and immunology has come a long way since folk remedies for asthma included taping pennies to the forehead and rubbing tomato paste on the chest. The recognition of allergic reactions can be traced back to 2621 B.C., when hieroglyphics in Egyptian King Menes' tomb described his death from a wasp or hornet sting, according to the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology. Yet thousands of years passed before the IgE class of antibodies was discovered in 1967. Allergists say the last 50 years or so have been marked by many such breakthroughs.
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