ABSTRACT
Immediate contact reactions (contact urticaria) are wheal and flare reactions with erythema and edema following external contact of intact skin or mucous membrane with a substance, usually appearing within 30 minutes and clearing completely within hours, without residual signs (21). Some systemic drugs have been reported to cause such reactions (table 5.1). Contact with the skin mostly occurred from accidental occupational contact, e.g. in nurses, dentists, pharmacists, veterinarians, other health care workers, or individuals working in pharmaceutical plants producing the drugs. Some patients developed contact urticaria from drugs used by persons in their close environment, e.g. a mother allergic to amoxicillin, who developed swelling of the lips after kissing her 5-year-old son on the lips, who had ingested amoxicillin earlier (contact urticaria by proxy) (16).
