Help could be at hand for hay fever sufferers as experts trial a vaccine which could give a lifetime's relief after four injections.

Clinical trials show the treatment, created by British scientists, significantly reduces the symptoms of hay fever, including streaming eyes, itchy nose and sneezing.

Allergy New Zealand chief executive Penny Jorgensen said one 2006 study into the complaint - known medically as seasonal allergic rhinitis - showed that 11 per cent of children aged 6 or 7 suffered from hay fever, climbing to 17 per cent for those in their early teens and 18 per cent for those aged 15 to 34, before falling to about 10 per cent for older adults.

While September to December were the worst months for New Zealand sufferers, the affliction "could be all year round depending on the allergy".

With the new vaccine, which featured in New Scientist magazine yesterday, hay fever sufferers receive an injection once a week for a month.

Previous attempts at vaccines have involved up to 100 injections taken over the course of anything up to three years as doctors gradually increased a patient's tolerance by injecting them with small doses of pollen.

The pollen in the new treatment has been modified to elude the body's defences, allowing much larger amounts to be injected. It lodges itself in tissue rather than going straight into the bloodstream, lengthening the amount of time it can affect the immune system.

The vaccine works by repressing a hay fever sufferer's usual response to grass pollen and encouraging a milder reaction.

Tests showed the new vaccine - called Pollinex Quattro - cut the symptoms of one in three patients by more than a quarter, with an average reduction of 13 per cent.