Symptoms of shrimp allergy may appear immediately a few hours after eating them, even with swelling in areas of the face, such as eyes, lips, mouth, and throat.
In general, people allergic to shrimp are also allergic to other shellfish, such as oysters and lobsters, and it is important to treat the occurrence of allergies related to these foods and, if necessary, remove them from the diet.
The main symptoms of shrimp allergy are
In the most severe cases, allergy can cause an exaggerated immune system reaction, causing anaphylaxis, a serious disease that must be treated immediately in the hospital, which can lead to death. Listen to symptoms of anaphylactic shock.
In addition to evaluating symptoms that result from eating shrimp or shellfish, your doctor may also ask for examples such as skin bite, as a small amount of protein found in shrimp is injected into your skin to check for any reactions. and a blood test, which verifies the presence of defense cells against shrimp proteins.
The treatment of any type of allergy is performed with the elimination of food from the patient’s food routine, avoiding the appearance of new allergic attacks. When symptoms appear, your doctor may prescribe antihistamines and corticosteroids to improve swelling, itching and inflammation, but there is no cure for allergy.
In case of anaphylaxis, the patient should be immediately transferred to the emergency department and, in some cases, the doctor may recommend that the patient always inject epinephrine to reverse the risk of death in an allergic emergency. Know first aid in case of crustacean allergy. .
Some allergy symptoms are not caused by shrimp, due to a preservative called sodium metabisulphite, which is used in frozen foods, in these cases the severity of symptoms depends on the number of preservatives consumed and symptoms do not appear when fresh shrimp are ingested.
To avoid this problem, you should always check the ingredient list on the product label and avoid those containing sodium metabisulphite.