Prevalence of Allergy to Natural Rubber Latex and Potential Cross Reacting Food in Operation Room Staff in Shiraz Hospitals

Introduction & Allergic reactions to natural rubber latex have increased during past 10 years especially among health care workers and patients with high exposure to latex allergens. Allergic reaction to latex is related to many diseases like occupational asthma. This study was performed to determine the prevalence of allergy to natural rubber latex and potential cross reacting food in operation room staff in Shiraz hospitals. In this cross-sectional descriptive study five hundred eighty operation room staff of ten private and state hospitals in Shiraz completed latex allergy questionnaire. They were questioned about personal history and previous history of latex sensitivity, symptoms of latex reactivity and about other allergies particularly to foods that may cross react with latex. Informed consent was obtained and skin prick testing was performed with natural rubber latex. Skin prick tests were done with three potentially cross reacting food (banana, Kiwi, and potato). The obtained data were analyzed with SPSS software and Chi-square test. Among the 580 operation room workers 104 (17.9 %) of participants were positive to latex skin test. We found a significant association between positive skin test to latex in operation room staff and atopy, urticaria and food allergy. Positive skin test to latex related to positive kiwi skin test (p<0.05). The prevalence did not vary by sex, age, education, surgical and non surgical glove users, history of contact dermatitis or smoking status. Latex allergy has a high prevalence in personnel of operation room. Evaluation of present symptom and prediction of future disease necessitate screening test in individuals at risk.