Mass allergy in medical students
May I ask you about the incidence of mass allergy in medical students. On Thursday 29th May, 21 medical students went to study in the lecture room in the sexual transmitted diseases center in Khon Kaen. They did not see any patients. The lecture went on from 9-11 am with the air conditioning on.
After the lecture ended some students got itchy eyes, flushing and later developed rhinoconjunctivitis with swelling of the face. After a day all 21 students including the teacher had more or less the same symptoms. I went to investigate the place and found two air conditioning units and a UV light lamp. I suspected the floor cleaning agent but the cleaners said she did the same for every day and used the same floor cleaning agent.
The students sitting at the back rows had more symptoms than those at the very first row. The lecture room was used last time in March but it was cleaned on Monday and Tuesday and also the morning of Thursday. While the lecture was on, the air conditioning was on a
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A difficult problem. If all the students were affected it is much more likely that this was a toxic rather than allergic reaction. Such reactions could have been due to a potent biocide, such as formaldehyde, glutaraldehyde or isothiozolinones. To occur it would be likely that a higher than usual concentration was used. It is possible that biocides were put into a water reservoir (such as a humidifier or dehumidifier) within the air-conditioning system, which could have affected those nearer the ceiling if the air supply was from the ceiling. A toxic reaction from microbial growth within an air-conditioning system is more likely to have caused respiratory than skin symptoms.
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