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Allergies

Background

Allergy is an altered immune response to a substance that is eaten, inhaled or injected and which is harmless in most people. Substances (allergens) as diverse as pollen, penicillin and bee venom produce reactions that vary in severity from a mild rash or itching/sneezing to bronchial asthma and, occasionally severe, life-threatening anaphylactic shock (see entry Anaphylaxis).

What are the symptoms? View What are the symptoms?

Medical text written November 1991 by Contact a Family. Approved November 1991 by Dr J Brostoff, Consultant Immunologist, Middlesex Hospital, London UK. Last reviewed May 2006 by Professor SR Durham, Professor of Allergy and Respiratory Medicine, Imperial College, London, UK.

 

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