What is urticaria and how unpleasant are its manifestations firsthand every fifth person on the planet knows. Moreover, most of those who at least once in their life have encountered this disease are children and women. For some unknown reason, urticaria “loves” them more than men. Symptoms of urticaria are known to everyone, but far from always people understand what causes such manifestations.
So what is urticaria? This is a disease of an allergic nature, the characteristic manifestations of which are rashes on the skin and mucous membranes in the form of small and large blisters. The process is developing in stages. Initially, red or bright pink spots appear on the skin. Gradually, they increase in size and become covered with blisters, which actually look like blisters that occur when the skin comes in contact with leaves and stems of nettles. The difference from such burns is that with hives, the size of the blisters is much larger, and the rash can be spread throughout the body.
The essence of the disease is an allergic reaction of the body to a certain irritant, a product that provokes the synthesis of biologically active substances that contribute to the rapid expansion of blood vessels. As a result of this process, the outflow of serous fluid into the skin tissue occurs, blisters form, then the vessels narrow and the skin becomes anemically white.
What can cause urticaria?
Since we have identified urticaria as an allergic disease, the first place in a number of factors that cause it is the misuse of drugs. Most often, they become penicillin medications. These are antibiotics or painkillers, such as novocaine or ice cream. It is enough to give a person just one injection of such a drug, without having previously tested for an allergic reaction, and urticaria will not slow down to manifest its symptoms .
Not only medications, but also poisonous insect bites – wasps, bees, ants, bumblebees, midges, etc. can become the cause of urticaria.
Touching poisonous plants is another reason for the likely allergic reaction of the body and the onset of contact dermatitis, and then hives on the skin.
Some foods can also cause characteristic skin rashes (food urticaria). Allergen products include seafood (sea fish, shrimp, seaweed, etc.), honey and other beekeeping products, exotic vegetables, and much more.
Sometimes urticaria occurs as an allergic reaction to the sun, during its activity. The body can give the same reaction to the cold – hives symptoms may occur from a long stay in cold water or severe hypothermia in the air.
Symptoms of urticaria in children
As we have already indicated, urticaria appears much more often in children. This is due to the fact that in the child’s body all internal processes proceed much more intensively. And due to the fact that the metabolism, especially water metabolism, is accelerated, secondary infections such as staphylococcus and streptococcus can join the urticaria. If this happens, then red blisters appear in the form of small white dots with purulent contents on the skin in places of rashes. Such a course of urticaria is accompanied by fever, headache, malaise and general weakness.
In addition, the phenomenon of sweating is quite common in young children, which in the absence of timely treatment and proper skin care can develop into dermatitis and then into urticaria.
Do not underestimate the danger of urticaria. Any type of this disease, regardless of the degree of manifestation of clinical symptoms, its rapid or slow development, the type of allergen that caused it, can lead to the development of Quincke’s edema, and all of a sudden.
So, if you detect characteristic skin rashes, consult a doctor and begin treatment of the disease as soon as possible. Only a specialist will be able to correctly diagnose, carry out the necessary laboratory tests, differentiate urticaria from dermatitis, staphylococcal infection and streptoderma, and then, based on the results obtained, prescribe targeted medical treatment.