Allergy stats swelled at HIV awareness
The problem of latex allergy in hospitals can be compared to a headache just beginning to twitch but destined to become a migraine. The rise in cases coincides with the federal order in 1988 requiring gloving against the HIV virus. Before the advent of universal precautions (now called standard precautions), health care workers used about 300 million gloves a year. Now that figure is closer to 9.6 billion.
More and more patients and staff are showing sensitivity to gloves as well as syringes, drapes, and the more than 40,000 health care and consumer products containing the allergen. About 1% of the general public is sensitive. Because of repeated exposures, health care workers have an estimated 17% risk, and that number jumps to 24% among atopic people.
Patients with neural tube defects myelomeningocele, meningocele, or spina bifida have an incidence of up to 66 % to 70%, especially high due to their continual exposure to the substance. In addition, patients who have had multiple intra-abdominal or genito-urinary surgical procedures or who have chronic conditions requiring continuous or intermittent catheterization, such as spinal cord trauma, neurogenic bladder, or exstrophy of the bladder, are at increased risk. Assume latex allergy in those patients, and put them on a latex-free protocol.
Look for sensitivity also in people who are exposed to latex through their occupation outside health care, such as those who work with latex or paint. Casual exposure, such as contact with balloons, condoms, even poinsettia plants, can cause sensitivity over time as well.
Some individuals are born with an immune-type response to any level of the allergen. If a person has allergies or a family history of sensitivities, his immune system is more likely to respond to latex. Some individuals become sensitized over time in a dose-related manner due to their increased exposure. Some people cannot even be in an environment where latex is being used.
Quality care demands appropriate identification of people sensitive to latex, and the provision of a latex-free, safe environment. Some patients and the allergic employee becomes a patient in this context can be managed by going to powder-free gloves; others require latex-free vinyl gloves.
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