Video - Serum sickness

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Video Summary

Serum sickness is a type III hypersensitivity reaction in which a foreign blood serum causes an allergy-like response. This happens when small, soluble foreign serum, elicits the production of antibodies, and those antigens and antibodies bind together to form immune complexes. These immune complexes then build up on the basement membrane of blood vessels in various parts of the body, and then the complement system is activated and this causes inflammation in and damage to nearby tissues. Symptoms include fever, urticaria, arthralgia, proteinuria, and lymphadenopathy. The treatment for serum sickness is generally to use antihistamines and analgesics which help with symptoms and to avoid the serum that triggered the reaction in the future.