Abstract：
Natural rubber latex is a widely used industrial raw material to produce many consumer and commercial products. Chronic exposures to latex allergenic proteins residual in the finished products can promote hypersensitive immune responses, which affects millions of workers and the general public worldwide. Research has shown the average prevalence of latex allergy worldwide remains approximately 10% among healthcare workers, 7% among susceptible patients, and 4% among general population. Although most effective in preventing latex allergy, completely avoiding contact to latex-derived products is extremely challenging, given the fact that millions of products possibly contain latex, but few are regulated and properly labeled. Due to the difficulty to assure a product completely absent of latex allergens, the United States Food and Drug Administration has recommended to stop using labels like \"latex-free\" or \"does not contain latex.\" Here we evaluate published data, industrial standards and regulations, identify possible countermeasures, and propose an integrated strategy, including some more practicable approaches (e.g., education/training, product labeling, the use of proper personal protective equipment, occupational selection, and searchable product database) and novel medical treatments (e.g., immunotherapy) to help decreasing latex allergy prevalence.
摘要：
天然橡胶胶乳是广泛用于生产许多消费和商业产品的工业原料。长期暴露于成品中残留的乳胶致敏蛋白可促进过敏性免疫反应，这影响了全世界数百万工人和公众。研究表明，全球范围内乳胶过敏的平均患病率在医护人员中仍然约为10％，7%的易感患者，在一般人群中占4%。虽然最有效的预防乳胶过敏，完全避免接触乳胶衍生产品是极具挑战性的，考虑到数以百万计的产品可能含有乳胶，但很少有人受到监管和适当的标签。由于难以确保产品完全不存在乳胶过敏原，美国食品和药物管理局建议停止使用“无乳胶”或“不含乳胶”等标签。“这里我们评估公布的数据，工业标准和法规，确定可能的对策，并提出综合战略，包括一些更可行的方法(例如，教育/培训，产品标签,使用适当的个人防护设备，职业选择,和可搜索的产品数据库)和新颖的医疗方法(例如，免疫疗法），以帮助降低乳胶过敏的患病率。
