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Anaphylaxis is an severe, whole-body allergic reaction. After being exposed to a substance like bee sting venom, the person's immune system becomes sensitized to that allergen. On a later exposure, an allergic reaction may occur. This reaction is sudden, severe, and involves the whole body. Tissues in different parts of the body release histamine and other substances. This causes the airways to tighten and leads to other symptoms. Some drugs (polymyxin, morphine, x-ray dye, and others) may cause an anaphylactic-like reaction (anaphylactoid reaction) when people are first exposed to them. This is usually due to a toxic reaction, rather than the immune system response that occurs with "true" anaphylaxis. The symptoms, risk for complications without treatment, and treatment are the same, however, for both types of reactions. The clinical symptoms of anaphylaxis affect various organs, most commonly starting in the skin and proceeding to the respiratory tract, to gastrointestinal involvement and to cardiovascular symptoms, and finally to cardiac and/or respiratory arrest.
Anaphylaxis can occur in response to any allergen.
Common causes include:
History
Theobald Smith (1859–1934), an American pioneer epidemiologist, bacteriologist, and pathologist. Smith’s contributions to immunology was demonstrating that animals develop hypersensitivity to bacteria upon repeated injections. In 1904, Smith recorded the hypersensitivity reaction, which late came to be known as 'Anaphylaxis', in guinea pigs when they became seriously ill after getting a second injection of a toxin-antitoxin mixture, several days after the first injection. At that time the reaction was known as the “Theobald Smith phenomenon.”
Development in the Discovery of Anaphylaxis
It was classified in 1902 by French physiologist, Charles Richet and Portier. He also published, in collaboration with Portier, the first work on this subject. Later, in a series of studies collected in the monograph L'Anaphylaxie of 1912, Richet - unaided - confirmed and expanded this discovery. In 1913, Charles Richet was awarded the Nobel Prize for his researches on anaphylaxis. He invented this word to designate the sensitivity developed by an organism after it had been given a parenteral injection of a colloid or protein substance or a toxin. Later he demonstrated the facts of passive anaphylaxis and anaphylaxis in vitro.
Role of the Discovery of Anaphylaxis in the Improvement of Human Life
