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Urticaria - Background information
What causes it?
- Urticaria can result directly from a type 1 hypersensitivity reaction (e.g. caused by food or bee/wasp sting), an immunological response to a febrile illness or infection, or an adverse drug reaction (which may vary in the mechanism of action).
- There is an overlap between the causes of acute and chronic urticaria.
- The causative factors in children and adults are the same (except that in children under 6 months there is a higher incidence of allergy to cow's milk) [Kobza-Black and Champion, 1998].
- In people with chronic urticaria who have no proven causative agent, there may be trigger factors which are not the main cause, but seem to exacerbate the urticarial rash: common trigger factors include medication, stress, exercise, cold, and alcohol [Kozel et al, 2003].
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