Occupational exposure of Brazilian neonatal intensive care workers to latex antigens

Background: Frequent exposure to latex causes various reactions such as respiratory symptoms and anaphylactic shock. In these cases, proteins found in natural latex are responsible for the serious systemic antilatex‐mediated immediate hypersensitive reactions. Methods: Cross‐sectional descriptive survey focusing on 96 Brazilian health care workers (HCW) in the neonatal intensive care unit at CAISM, State University of Campinas UNICAMP, Brazil. All subjects were interviewed, donated blood samples for the latex‐specific immunoglobulin E measurement and underwent the skin prick test (SPT) with an antigen extracted from latex gloves. Results: The prevalence of latex positive SPT was 8%. There were eight SPT positive and only one serologic test was in agreement with the SPT. Overall, there was evidence of an association between the latex SPT and reported eczema (P = 0.01); food allergy (P = 0.009) with pineapple (P = 0.01). Conclusions: These results suggest that the identification of reactions of immediate hypersensitivity mediated by antilatex antibodies in HCW should be encouraged to prevent occupational exposure to latex products.