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Processionary caterpillar reactions in Southern Italy forestry workers: description of three cases
BACKGROUND: Processionary caterpillar (PC), also named Thaumatopea pityocampa, has been reported to cause hypersensitivity reactions after contact with a toxin contained in hair-like bristles which cover this insect. Occupational exposure to PC is underestimated in outdoor workers and especially in...
Autores principales: | , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
BioMed Central
2021
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8422601/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34488796 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12948-021-00155-8 |
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author | Ricciardi, Luisa Giorgianni, Concetto Briguglio, Giusi Gangemi, Sebastiano Spatari, Giovanna |
author_facet | Ricciardi, Luisa Giorgianni, Concetto Briguglio, Giusi Gangemi, Sebastiano Spatari, Giovanna |
author_sort | Ricciardi, Luisa |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: Processionary caterpillar (PC), also named Thaumatopea pityocampa, has been reported to cause hypersensitivity reactions after contact with a toxin contained in hair-like bristles which cover this insect. Occupational exposure to PC is underestimated in outdoor workers and especially in forestry workers (FW) and is globally diffusing because of rising temperatures. CASES PRESENTATION: We present the first three cases of FW from Sicily, a Southern Italy (SI) region, which reported hypersensitivity reactions due to exposure to PC infested trees. These cases were identified by the occupational health physician during the annual screening of FW working in the Mountains of north-eastern Sicily. Interviewing a population of 630 FW, 1 male and 2 females reported direct contact skin reactions together with airborne contact reactions to PC hairs causing mild respiratory symptoms in two cases and ocular symptoms in one case, which needed treatment with systemic corticosteroids and antihistamines. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first report of hypersensitivity reactions in SI FW due to occupational exposure to PC. Further screenings not only in FW but also in other populations of outdoor workers are needed in order to assess the real incidence of contact and airborne reactions due to occupational exposure to PC. Though so far no correlation has been found with atopy, it seems apparent that the reactions occur in susceptible subjects; further research is needed for a correct diagnosis and to identify possible desensitization procedures. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8422601 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | BioMed Central |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-84226012021-09-09 Processionary caterpillar reactions in Southern Italy forestry workers: description of three cases Ricciardi, Luisa Giorgianni, Concetto Briguglio, Giusi Gangemi, Sebastiano Spatari, Giovanna Clin Mol Allergy Case Report BACKGROUND: Processionary caterpillar (PC), also named Thaumatopea pityocampa, has been reported to cause hypersensitivity reactions after contact with a toxin contained in hair-like bristles which cover this insect. Occupational exposure to PC is underestimated in outdoor workers and especially in forestry workers (FW) and is globally diffusing because of rising temperatures. CASES PRESENTATION: We present the first three cases of FW from Sicily, a Southern Italy (SI) region, which reported hypersensitivity reactions due to exposure to PC infested trees. These cases were identified by the occupational health physician during the annual screening of FW working in the Mountains of north-eastern Sicily. Interviewing a population of 630 FW, 1 male and 2 females reported direct contact skin reactions together with airborne contact reactions to PC hairs causing mild respiratory symptoms in two cases and ocular symptoms in one case, which needed treatment with systemic corticosteroids and antihistamines. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first report of hypersensitivity reactions in SI FW due to occupational exposure to PC. Further screenings not only in FW but also in other populations of outdoor workers are needed in order to assess the real incidence of contact and airborne reactions due to occupational exposure to PC. Though so far no correlation has been found with atopy, it seems apparent that the reactions occur in susceptible subjects; further research is needed for a correct diagnosis and to identify possible desensitization procedures. BioMed Central 2021-09-06 /pmc/articles/PMC8422601/ /pubmed/34488796 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12948-021-00155-8 Text en © The Author(s) 2021 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) ) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data. |
spellingShingle | Case Report Ricciardi, Luisa Giorgianni, Concetto Briguglio, Giusi Gangemi, Sebastiano Spatari, Giovanna Processionary caterpillar reactions in Southern Italy forestry workers: description of three cases |
title | Processionary caterpillar reactions in Southern Italy forestry workers: description of three cases |
title_full | Processionary caterpillar reactions in Southern Italy forestry workers: description of three cases |
title_fullStr | Processionary caterpillar reactions in Southern Italy forestry workers: description of three cases |
title_full_unstemmed | Processionary caterpillar reactions in Southern Italy forestry workers: description of three cases |
title_short | Processionary caterpillar reactions in Southern Italy forestry workers: description of three cases |
title_sort | processionary caterpillar reactions in southern italy forestry workers: description of three cases |
topic | Case Report |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8422601/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34488796 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12948-021-00155-8 |
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