The spring and summer months bring people outdoors. Insects, including bees, wasps, and fire ants, become more active as well. Eventually people and stinging insects come into contact with each other, often with painful results. Sometimes, bee, wasp and fire ant stings can cause life-threatening anaphylaxis.

As with any other type of allergy, allergic reactions to bee stings require prior sensitization. If someone has never been stung before, they are not allergic. Allergic reactions can occur with the second sting or with the one-hundreth sting, but never the first sting.

Anaphylactic reactions are fairly easy to determine on clinical grounds alone. Local pain and swelling are expected after a bee sting and not a cause for concern. Also large local reactions, while painful, are not dangerous as long as they do not involve the airway. Neither of these two reactions identifies patients at increased risk for anaphylactic reactions to bee stings other than creating the possibility of sensitizing the patient to bee venom.

About The Author
Gary B. Moss M.D
www.allergydocs.net