Hi Mike & all

> >  Something like one in 50,000 among the general population and
> > about one in a
> > hundred among beekeepers and their close families.
>
> My daughter had a true allergic reaction to honeybee venom. Her allergist
> told me the numbers are more like 1 in 200 in the general population are
> allergic to HBV, while the numbers go to 1 in 10 in beekeeper families. 1
> in 50,000 seems a bit low to me.

You will see many different figures quoted for sting sensitivity, as many of
the published figures are compounded into a single number using elements of
both general population figures and beekeeper family figures along with
estimates of the ratio between the general population and the number of
beekeepers within it.

The figures arrived at vary quite widely and usually reflect the point of
view of the person or group putting forward the figures.

I do not wish to belittle anybody's genuine allergic reaction, but the
figures I stated came from the guy (that conducts bee sting immunisation
therapy) at one of my local hospitals, about 20 years ago.

There is obviously a 'tolerance' involved in the numbers, I reckon that the
figures for beekeeper allergy may be a little lower than one in a hundred,
simply because among my personal friends it is more like one in seventy, but
I doubt that the figures are wrong by a factor of 250 as you suggest... An
error factor of 2 or 5 may well be possible, but if it were one in 200 in
the general population the hospitals would be flooded out with anaphylactic
shock victims.


Regards & Best 73s, Dave Cushman, G8MZY
http://website.lineone.net/~dave.cushman or http://www.dave-cushman.net
Fall Back M/c, Build 6.02 (stable)

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