High concentrations of natural rubber latex allergens in gloves used by laboratory health personnel in South Africa

INTRODUCTION: Gloves made of natural rubber latex (NRL) are commonly used by healthcare workers because of their good qualities. However, allergic reactions to latex allergens are still commonly reported.OBJECTIVE: To measure the concentrations of Hev b 1, Hev b 3, Hev b 5 and Hev b 6.02 allergens in gloves used by a large laboratory service in South Africa.METHODS: NRL gloves as well as non-latex gloves supplied by various suppliers that were used by the laboratory personnel during the period June 2009 - May 2010 were obtained from various suppliers on the vendor list. Proteins were extracted from the gloves and Hev b 1, Hev b 3, Hev b 5 and Hev b 6.02 allergens were quantified using the FITkit assay.RESULTS: Twenty NRL gloves from 13 different brands were analysed. Only four (20%) of the 20 NRL gloves analysed had a total allergen content <0.15 &#956;g/g, the suggested threshold limit for low allergenicity for the sum of these four allergens.CONCLUSION: This study demonstrated that a very low proportion of gloves tested had a total allergen content below the threshold for low allergenicity.

Bibliographic Details

Main Authors:	Ratshikhopha,M E, Singh,T S, Jones,D, Jeebhay,M F, Lopata,A L
Format:	Digital revista
Language:	English
Published:	South African Medical Association 2015
Online Access:	http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0256-95742015000100021
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