Natural rubber latex represents a potent
allergen, which for many years had an important impact on occupational health problems but especially on certain risk groups such as
spina bifida. Luckily, these problems decreased when
powder-free,
latex-poor gloves were introduced. Latest data show that in children with
spina bifida, who grew up completely
latex-free from birth on, sensitization to NRL as well as clinical relevant
allergy significantly decreased. Furthermore, sensitization to aeroallergens also went down and even the prevalence of allergic diseases decreased significantly to rates of the general population. This new data clearly indicates that potent
allergens (such as
latex) in high-risk groups (such as
spina bifida) can induce sensitization spreading, and corresponding avoidance can reverse this development. In conclusion, it can be stated that 'new'
allergies can suddenly arise, there are
allergen-specific risk groups, local
IgE-production is also possible in the CNS,
allergen avoidance can be very effective in terms of primary prevention, sensitization spreading can be made reversible by effective prevention, and finally, certain
allergies can luckily become history within a relatively short period of time. Furthermore, these new findings clearly end the debate about whether patients with
spina bifida have a disease-inherited risk for
allergy to NRL and show that the cause is the meningi and the multiple surgical interventions - and therefore sequelae can be reversed by implementing preventive measures.