POLOKWANE – She recently hosted a session with students from the University of Limpopo regarding allergies aligned with red meat and she plans to host several more of those at no cost in October. After treating a patient with Hereditary Angioedema (HAE) is a disorder that results in recurrent attacks of severe swelling. The swelling most commonly affects the arms, legs, face, intestinal tract, and airway. Mabelane says that most households, especially African households, take allergies very lightly which very dangerous as some allergies can result in deaths.
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“Recently, I had a patient whom we found out that they have what is known as Angioedema (HAE) which is a genetic condition and therefore a person is born with it. This dangerous condition is typically found among family members e.g. mother or father and children. A child born to a parent with HAE has 50% chance of inheriting this condition.”
She said the problem with this type of condition is there is the potential for swelling of the tongue and throat, which can cause breathing difficulty and may result in death.
“People who have this condition usually have insufficient a protein in body (called C1 Esterase) and this causes tiny blood vessels to push fluid into nearby areas of your body. That leads to sudden swelling of any part of the body lasting for a few days, the swelling can sometimes not be visible to the naked eye,” she added.
She says the only way to know if one has the condition is to have a blood test done to check for levels of the protein. The test is available from any hospital but advises people to get their local nurse or doctor to book them to consultation at an allergy clinic, there is the Polokwane Hospital allergy clinic in Limpopo that offers such check-ups.
“If one is found to have the condition, I advise the entire family of that patient to go and have the test done, even those with no visible symptoms. There is different medication for prevention and relieving symptoms,” she said.
Common symptoms of HAE include:
• Redness of the skin or hives as a result of swelling.
• Allergic reaction to medication, especially high blood pressure medication (e.g. enalapril / pharmapress) or pain medication.
• Headaches.
• Fatigue.
• Skin tingling.
• Abdominal pains (sometimes severe).
• Nausea and vomiting.
