Module 4: Occupational Allergy - Lecture

1. DEFINITION: OCCUPATIONAL ALLERGY:

2. ALLERGENS:

These are proteins (animal, plant, microbial), enzymes (synthetic), chemicals, spices. These proteins are usually of high molecular weight and cross-react.

3. ROUTES OF EXPOSURE:

4. FACTORS INFLUENCING MANIFESTATION OF ALLERGIC DISEASES:

The diagram below depicts the natural history of an allergic disease such as occupational asthma, illustrating the contribution of these various factors.

5. IMMUNOLOGICAL MECHANISMS:

Coombs and Gell defined four types of immune hypersensitivity reactions:

Creative Commons License
Postgraduate Diploma in Occupational Health (DOH) - Modules 3 – 5: Occupational Medicine & Toxicology by Prof Rodney Ehrlich & Prof Mohamed Jeebhay is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://www.healthedu.uct.ac.za/