You should begin by saying that allergy to natural rubber latex is an increasing problem for health care workers who may have to carry out procedures on patients who react to latex or who may themselves develop reactions to latex. The reactions tend to fall into two groups, either skin contact or anaphylactic in type. Both are serious problems and no distinction should be made between them.

Natural latex contains a variety of highly allergenic proteins, which cause reaction by repeated exposure and hypersensitivity. Continued exposure increases the severity of the reaction. It is interesting that there are reports of cross-reactions to similar proteins in fruits such as banana, avocado and kiwi fruit as well as nuts.

If a patient reports possible latex allergy then, while skin testing by dermatologists is possible, it is time consuming and potentially dangerous so it may be wise to accept the patient at face value and treat them as if they are positive. Many latex sensitive patients will have a history of skin reactions to rubber gloves, condoms or balloons.