RESUMO
The incidence of allergy to 14 different household pests, including 2 house dust mite species (D. farinae and D. pteronyssinus), was investigated among 156 asthmatic children in Barbados. Independent variables, including urban/rural residence, building material of the home, and presence of carpeting, were found to be significant factors related to the house dust mite allergy. The continuing trend of modernization of the domestic environment, which provides an optimal microhabitat for several household pests, is implicated as a probable contributing factor in the increasing overall prevalence of asthma reported in Barbados. Children between the ages of 5 and 18 years with a diagnosis of bronchial asthma were selected from attendees at six polyclinics distributed throughout the island, an urban private general practice, and the accident and emergency department of the only acute general hospital on the island. Skin tests were done by scratching, and by intradermal injection, if the scratch test proved negative. Allergy to the house dust mite was the most common of the reactions to the household pests tested, and was found in 81 percent of the asthmatic children (AU)
Assuntos
Criança , Humanos , Hipersensibilidade , Ácaros , Asma/complicações , Barbados , Testes CutâneosRESUMO
Africanized honeybees (HBs) pose a hazard to both normal and sting-sensitive subjects in certain areas of Central and South America, and it is predicted that they will soon be present in the southern United States as well. Using an electrical stimulation device, we collected Africanized HB venom (AHV) in Venezuela and European HB venom (EHV) in Louisiana. These venoms, along with commercial European HB venom (CHV), were compared by thin-layer isoelectric focusing and sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE). The Coomassie brilliant blue and silver-stained banding patterns of AHV and EHV were essentially identical to CHV. Western blots were prepared from SDS-PAGE gels and tested with pooled sera from EHV-sensitive subjects and then radiolabeled antihuman IgE. The resulting autoradiographs revealed similar banding patterns among EHV, AHV, and CHV. RAST-inhibition studies were performed with solid-phase CHV and pooled sera from EHV-sensitive subjects. The specific allergenic activities of the three HB venoms (allergy units per milligram of protein) were comparable. By RAST-inhibition assay with solid-phase, highly purified individual venom components, AHV and EHV both contained phospholipase A2, hyaluronidase, and high-molecular-weight allergens. The increased morbidity after Africanized HB stings is likely related to their more defensive behavior during which many bees react by stinging rather than to biochemical or allergenic differences between AHV and EHV.