Treatment of mosquito bites with ebastine: a field trial

Wealing and pruritic, long-lasting papules are a common nuisance from mosquito bites. Antihistamines can be expected to decrease wealing, but their effect on the delayed bite symptoms needs to be elucidated. We studied the effect of ebastine in 28 mosquito-bite sensitive adult subjects exposed to Aedes communis bites in the field. Ebastine 20 mg and placebo were given for 4 days in a cross-over fashion, and the size of the bite lesion and the intensity of pruritus (visual analogue scale) were measured at 15 min and 2, 6 and 24 h after the bites. Ebastine decreased significantly (p <0.001) the size of the bite lesion and pruritus at 15 min. Ebastine also had a significant effect (p<0.01) on pruritus at 2 and 24 h, and this effect was highly significant when the measurements at all 4 time points were pooled. Five patients (18%) on ebastine, but none on placebo, experienced sedation (ns). The present field study shows that ebastine 20 mg given prophylactically is effective against immediate mosquito bite symptoms, and that it also significantly decreases pruritus associated with the delayed bite papules.