Question

The remaining questions in this section relate to the following case: Ahmed has worked as a phlebotomist in the local hospital for the last 7 years. Last year, he began to complain of watery, nasal congestion and wheezing whenever he went to work. He suspected he was allergic to something at the hospital because his symptoms abated when he was at home over the weekends. One day he arrived at work for the morning shift and put on his gloves. Within minutes, he went into severe respiratory distress requiring treatment in the emergency ward. It was determined at that time his allergic response was due to latex exposure.

Ahmed experienced a type I, IgE-mediated hypersensitivity response. How can this be determined by his signs and symptoms? (2)

How might another type of latex hypersensitivity reaction present? (2)
How is it that someone who does not come into direct contact with latex can still have a hypersensitivity response to the material? (2)
What do food allergies have to do with latex allergies? (2

Answer 1

• Type 1, IGE-mediated hypersensitivity response is exhibited by signs and symptoms such as asthma, watery nasal congestion, and shortness of breath, hypotension, eczema, allergic rhinitis, and wheezing, irregular heartbeat and urticarial. This is basically because of the release of vasoactive mediators such as the histamine. Ahmed started to experience watery nasal congestion and wheezing at work which were absent at his home. He went into severe respiratory distress at work when he put on his gloves. This clearly indicated that he was allergic to latex and he had type 1, IGE-mediated hypersensitivity response.
• A type IV, cell mediated contact dermatitis allergy might have been present in the case of Ahmed. This is a non-life threatening allergy that is elicited due to the chemicals present in latex products. This is more of a delayed type of allergy that usually takes to a long time to develop and it involve the action of multiple macrophages, monocytes and T-cells. Since, Ahmed did not experience the allergy from 7 years so he can have a type IV, cell mediated contact dermatitis allergy.
• It is not necessary to experience a latex allergy by direct contact. A latex allergy can develop indirectly by inhaling latex products from the air. The response can thus result in anaphylaxis and severe asthma.
• People having latex allergy can also be allergic to certain type of food items. For example, the patients with latex allergy should not eat avocado, kiwifruit, chestnut, strawberry, tomato, plum and passion fruit because some of the proteins that elicit latex allergy are also present in these food items.