Aquagenic Urticaria AKA the water allergy Rhiley Dobosz and Leah Childress

Aquagenic urticaria -Water allergy -Hives cover any part of body that come into contact with water -Mostly affects women during onset puberty

Scientific description Aquagenic Urticaria is a rare condition in which urticaria (hives) develop rapidly after the skin has come in contact with water, many patients also report itching. You get hives because the epidermis gets thicker in order to prevent water from penetrating through the skin. Currently there is no known cause for this disease.

Symptoms and signs hives appear after contact with any water -small, red, and or skin tone colored welts Some itching is possible Rash usually lasts anywhere from 30-60 minutes

cause There are two main theories to why this happens The first theory is that a substance gets dissolved in the water goes into the skin which triggers an immune response within the body. With this, scientists say the hives are not caused by water, but a reaction to something in the water A second theory is not because of the water but with a substance in or on the skin which could be generating a toxic material, leading to the development of hives on the skin The triggers are: rain, snow, tears, and sweat

Worst case scenario aquagenic urticaria can potentially put the person into anaphylactic shock Anaphylactic shock: an extreme and often times life-threatening allergic reaction to an antigen in which the body has become hypersensitive to

3 big facts This disease is so rare scientists aren’t 100% sure what causes it To confirm that you have this you have to do a “Water Challenge Test” where water is applied to the upper body for 30 minutes There are only 30 reported cases in medical literature

sources -https://rarediseases.info.nih.gov/diseases/10901/aquagenic-urticaria -https://www.healthline.com/health/aquagenic-urticaria -http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/05/27/10.rare.diseases/ - https://www.google.com/search?q=what+is+anaphylectic+shock&rlz=1C1GGRV_enUS817U S817&oq=what+is+anaphylectic+shock&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l5.6359j1j4&sourceid=chrome &ie=UTF-8&surl=1&safe=active -https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/local-news/water-allergy-girl-reaches-21st-58672