John Mitchell wrote:

> Surprisingly, I reacted to honey bee and yellow jacket venom —
> even though I was stung upwards of 2 dozen times last year by honey bees,
> sometimes multiple times. I always have a local reaction, but nothing that
> would signal the onset of shock. This indicates to me that the test results
> are not reliable.
>

Skin prick tests are simply a test for what is called an IGE response to an
allergen.

IG = immunoglobulin; E is a subclass of IG, there are also several others like
IGA, IGD, IGM
An allergen is an allergic stimuli.

Whilst anaphylactic reactions are IGE mediated, very very few people with an IGE
reaction ever suffer from anaphylaxis.

In New Zealand about 40% of the population have an abnormal IGE response to
something. Over a recent two year period 141 (out of a population of 3.825
million) were admitted to hospital with anaphylaxis mostly to common foods and
medicines. Thats 0.001% of the population per year or 1 per 22,000 IGE positive
persons per year.

Just remember, the chances of dying from preventable medical error on admission
to hospital is 1:300. (Official 300 page Institute of Medicine Report, November
1999)

Ron Law