INTRODUCTION
Mosquito bites cause typical local cutaneous reactions in children and adults. Although these reactions decrease quality of patients, the symptoms resolve in several days without any systemic or severe symptoms in the majority of the population (1). However, there are patients who encounter unusual or “exaggerated” reactions such as large local, atypical or systemic reactions after mosquito bites. Even if the immune mechanisms associated with the reaction type and severity are not yet completely found out, these patients are defined as mosquito allergic patients and due to the limited availability of the in vivo and in vitro diagnostic methods, the diagnosis is primarily made with the help of clinical history and physical examination findings (2).
Several cross-sectional and longitudinal studies are performed in order to determine the natural course of the disease. It has been suggested that natural desensitization may occur in adolescence and young children may be at increased risk of having severe reactions to mosquito bites (3, 4). However, the data regarding the demographic features of children with mosquito allergy is limited.
The aim of this study was to document the characteristics of children with mosquito allergy and investigate the possible associations between demographic features and clinical reactions in this population.