2018 Volume 32 Issue 2 Pages 236-240
Recently, erythritol has been increasingly consumed as a diet food, and accordingly, pediatric cases of immediate hypersensitivity reactions to erythritol have been reported. We herein report another case of erythritol hypersensitivity characterized by allergic symptoms and signs not only to food products but also to the dry syrup formulation of the anti-influenza medicine TAMIFLU®. The present patient was a nine-year-old girl who had a two-year history of immediate allergic symptoms and signs, such as eyelid edema, uriticaria, and dyspnea, after the intake of low-calorie jelly, gum, or powdered green tea ice cream. She also developed similar symptoms and signs when she took TAMIFLU® dry syrup. Because erythritol was the only component common to those food products and the medicine that induced hypersensitivity reactions, we suspected erythritol as the causative agent. A skin prick test with a sweetener containing 99% erythritol was negative ; however, upon oral challenge with 1 g of erythritol, she developed eyelid edema and uriticaria on the face and trunk, leading to a diagnosis of erythritol allergy. Given that erythritol is included in various sweets and drugs, we should be alert for this clinical entity in children.
