by Anya Martin, MarketWatch

DECATUR, Ga. (MarketWatch) — an allergy to natural rubber latex may trigger a life-threatening reaction — including difficulty breathing, increased heart rate and low blood pressure — or it may simply cause an ugly, itchy, red rash.

That’s because there are different types of latex allergy. The dangerous “anaphylactic” Type I allergy is a potentially fatal immune-system reaction that affects multiple organ systems and can lead to death; avoiding it requires numerous precautions. But people who simply break out after contact with latex gloves or another latex product may have either irritant dermatitis (skin inflammation) or contact dermatitis (often called a Type IV allergy) which only affects the skin.

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Still, many people are told they have a latex allergy based on a skin reaction — without clarifying these differences or investigating other causes. That makes this often-misunderstood allergy a good teaching tool for what to do when you suspect you may have an allergy, experts say.

from epidemic to incidental

Allergies occur when your immune system is hypersensitive to a particular substance. One of the nation’s fastest growing chronic diseases, more than half of all Americans (54.6%) test positive to one or two allergens. Allergic diseases, such as asthma, affect as many as 50 million Americans, according to the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (AAAAI).

The first step to developing an allergy is exposure, said Dr. Jackie Eghrari-Sabet, a Gaithersburg, Ma.-based allergist. You cannot have an allergy to something the first time you encounter it.

in 2000, 1% to 5% of the general population, 5% to 15% of health workers, and up to 60% of people with spina bifida, which requires numerous surgeries, were estimated to have latex allergy, according to the AAAAI.

this “epidemic” led most hospitals and medical facilities to eliminate latex gloves, said Sue Lockwood, executive director of the American Latex Allergy Association (ALAA), an educational and support organization.

at first, allergists and health-care workers who either had or suspected they had the allergy were her most frequent contacts, but now she more often hears from pediatricians, primary-care physicians and gynecologists, as well as restaurant employees, postal workers, hairdressers and people who got a rash on their chin after visiting the dentist, Lockwood said.

“The reason is that things are getting better, but also allergists are no longer the ones treating or diagnosing the patient,” she said. “Now the patient is more likely to be a consumer, a layperson, a child, a student.”

Recognizing an allergy

On the two to three days a week she spent in the operating room, Lockwood, a former surgical technician, would develop itchy hives, a runny nose, and a cough, and her eyes would become teary and almost swell shut, she said. then she’d go home for several days and return to normal.

Her symptoms worsened over several months until she suffered anaphylaxis for the first of eight times. “It comes on quickly and each person is probably a bit different with the symptoms, but mine were that my mouth started to itch, I could feel something swelling in my throat, and then I would start to wheeze,” Lockwood said.

a general guideline for identifying that you may have a Type I allergy is having a reaction in at least two organ systems such as skin and respiratory, said Dr. Andy Nish, an allergist in Gainesville, Ga. Other examples of Type I allergies include hay fever, asthma, eczema, and food and drug allergies.

Irritant dermatitis, an immediate rash reaction, is technically not an allergy at all, while with contact dermatitis, skin redness and swelling may appear 24 to 48 hours after exposure, a familiar case being poison ivy, Nish said. both are not related to immune system antibodies, he said.