Bee Allergy, Desensitization and bee venom differences

[Tomel-01]

I am 60 years old. When I was a child, I required emergency treatment following a bee sting. It was determined that I had a strong allergy to honey bee stings and a lesser allergy to wasp stings. I went through a desensitization regimen. My questions are as follows:

o Does the desensitization regimen last a life time? Am I still protected?

o Are honey bee and wasp venom similar and are their venom different from the venom of other bees? I was recently stung 5 times by yellow jackets. While I had my epipen ready in the event of a reaction, I had no abnormal reaction (just the sting pain for a couple of days, followed by itching for 3 or 4 more days).

[National Jewish Health]

Hymenoptera sting reactions are always difficult to be dogmatic about.

Desensitization probably does not last a lifetime.  However there is a tendency to lose sensitivity spontaneously over time.  So somewhere the 2 trends probably meet, meaning there may be some increased risk in a person who has had a reaction, but it may be about the same whether they had shots or not.

Honey bee, wasp and yellow jacket venoms are all different, but there may be minor cross-reactivity.  The stings by yellow jackets without a reaction are no guarantee that stings by the others would be tolerated.

[crystalfresh]

Each venom can be different. I am very allergic to Wasp, but not so honey bee. I believe that Hornets and Bees both have stingers. Wasps inject a liquid. Please double check before taking this information as accurate.