Low prevalence of allergy to cockroach and latex in asthmatic patients in Eskisehir (Anatolia), Turkey

Allergy to cockroach and latex are said to be causes of asthma particularly in same groups. We studied allergy to cockroach and latex in asthmatic pat ients from Eskisehir (Anatolia), Turkey in order to determine whether these allergens play an important role in the Anatolian region. A total of 216 a sthmatic patients (mean age 43.7 +/- 11.0 years) were skin tested with comm on aeroallergens, Blatella germanica and latex. Sixty-three patients were a llergic (29.1%) and 153 were nonallergic (70.8%) according to skin test res ults. Sensitization to pollens (57%) and mites (55.5%) was most common amon g allergic patients. We found a low sensitization to cockroach (4.7%) and l atex (1.4%). We suggested that cockroach sensitization plays a small role i n sensitization in our geographic area and that latex sensitization is low in allergic asthmatic patients who were referred for reasons other than lat ex-related symptoms.