Minimum prevalence of latex hypersensitivity in health care workers

Health care workers (HCW) have been shown to be at significant risk for dev eloping latex allergy. Natural rubber latex hypersensitivity has been repor ted in 2.9 to 17% of health care workers in previously published studies. T his study describes the prevalence of latex hypersensitivity in a large coh ort of medical center employees. A screening questionnaire was distributed to 1967 employees in six job categories exposed to Eater, and 1331 question naires were returned (68%) between March and November 1995. Skin and serolo gic testing was performed on 156 volunteers. Of the 1331 HCWs who completed the screening questionnaire, 290 (21.8%) self-reported contact dermatitis to latex, 67 (5.0%) self-reported urticaria to latex, 163 (12.2%) self-repo rted rhinoconjunctivitis to latex, and 17 (2.3%) self-reported asthmatic sy mptoms to Inter. Of the total population of 1967 employees, 38 (1.9%) were either skin test or blood test positive and 30 (1.5%) of these 38 were symp tomatic around latex. This study suggests a minimum prevalence of IgE-media ted hypersensitivity to Inter of 1.5% among medical center employees. Our r eported prevalence figures are lower than previously reported, reflecting, in part, reporting methods using a denominator more consistent with the tot al population at risk. Our study also illustrates the pitfall of relying on self-reporting in making the diagnosis of latex allergy.