COCKROACH ALLERGY IN CHILDREN - CLINICAL LABORATORY AND ENVIRONMENTAL CHARACTERISTICS

The authors describe the clinical/laboratory profile of 33 children sensitized to cockroaches, selected on the basis of positive skin tests and RAST from along 1200 new patients, i.e. 2.7 per cent, seen in a pediatric immuno-allergology out-patient clinic. Clinical manifestations of this sensitivity essentially involved asthma (27 cases out 33), and less often obstructive rhinitis which was always severe (4 cases out of 33) and sometimes exclusive, indicating the high degree of allergenicity of the insect, but most often accompanied or complicated another sensitisation, essentially that to acaris. This type of allergy is seen predominantly in families of north african and asiatic ethnic origin, the living conditions and dietary habits of these groups being propitious to the domestic development of these insect parasites. This notable incidence (7 per cent of our cases of respiratory allergy, 11 per cent of our allergic asthmatics) of sensitisation to cockroaches, which in the same way as acaris are ubiquitous allergens, indicates that it must be routinely sought in all cases of respiratory allergy in children.