One of the first things someone is taught in the medical field, is when someone says they are allergic to something, is to ask, "What happens to you?"
Being allergic means many things. Anaphylaxis is the most dire form of an allergy and that basically means a life threatening emergency. Some have criticized others for lying about being allergic to certain substances. They may be but not to the point of anaphylaxis.
To have an allergic response, you must have been exposed to that antigen before. AT that point your immune response was primed and the next time you are exposed it triggers the exagerated immune response.
People have thought they were allergic to an antigen, but find out later it was something else. Case in point, a boy stung by a bee has a reaction after never showing one before. He gets stung a year later and nothing. It was deduced that the first bee had pollen which was introduced into the boy's system and it wasn't the venom or vector that caused it.
The moral of the story, test yourself. Michael c is right. Your life might depend on it.
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