Allergic rashes, hives, urticaria, etc are a major problem world wide.
Allergic rashes, hives, urticaria, etc are a major problem world wide.
Here we hope to gove you some kind of insight into certain rashes and help you with information and advice about your problem. Dont forget - if you do not know what your rash actually is - you might find the self diagnosis with Body map section of the website helpful. Visit the Frequently Asked Questions(FAQ) area of the site for asnwers to commonly posed questions.
Skin Allergy
Skin allergy comes in two different forms. Firstly, there is skin allergy due to contact on the skin surface with substances to which the sufferer is sensitive or allergic. A common example of this would be a lady developing an allergic rash to earrings due to her allergy to the nickel contained within earrings.
A further example would be a patient suffering a rash on the face following the application of a moisturising cream because that patient is suffering from an allergy to one of the chemical constituents of that cream. This type of skin surface allergy is called "allergic contact dermatitis".
A second type of skin allergy occurs where the sufferer has some kind of internal exposure (as opposed to skin-surface exposure). Common examples of this type of problem would include eating certain foodstuffs, for example seafood, or developing a skin rash following taking medications by mouth. The different types of skin rash which can be caused by this type of problem are numerous but common ones include "urticaria", "toxic erythema" and "erythema multiforme".
by Dr John Ashworth
