Blood Transfusion Recipient Temporarily Receives Donor’s Food Allergies
Blood transfusion recipient temporarily receives donor’s food allergies – A boy in Canada mysteriously became allergic to fish and nuts after he received a blood transfusion, according to a new case report.
The 8-year-old boy had no history of being allergic to any foods, and was undergoing treatment for medulloblastoma, a type of brain cancer.
According to the report, published online on April 7 in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, a few weeks after receiving a blood transfusion, he experienced a severe allergic reaction called anaphylaxis within 10 minutes of eating salmon. His doctors suspected that the blood transfusion had triggered the reaction.
The doctors treated the boy with a drug containing antihistamines and asked him to avoid eating fish and nuts, and to carry an epinephrine injector in case he experienced another allergic episode.
Senior author, Dr. Julia Upton, a specialist in clinical immunology and allergy at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, said that allergic reactions to previously tolerated foods are very rare; he may have received the protein, immunoglobin E, that triggers allergic reaction to certain foods, when he received the blood transfusion.
Category: News Videos, Videos
