Summer Time -- Poison Ivy Time
... not that you are safe in any of the other seasons: pull up on a plant's bare roots or branches, you'll as likely get a rash as if you had touched the leaf. Burning it will affect your throat and bronchial tubes. So the best way to eliminate it altogether is spraying it with one of the weed killers, such as Round Up or similar product, or if you have to dig it up put in a plastic bag and dispose of it in the trash..
It is a myth that if immune to its effects now you'll be immune to it forever. Almost everyone gets sensitized eventually given enough exposure to, or a large enough dose of, the contact allergy producing oleoresin called urushiol. Examine the pictures below and learn to recognize it.
Poison ivy nearly always grows in clusters of three leaflets to a stem. These leaflets are smooth, notched or lobed and are usually shiny green, though occasionally dull when covered with dust. They take on a very pretty red color early in the fall, made even more attractive by a cluster of white berries growing at the base of a leaf. It is very common along roads, fences and ditches. It needs sunlight and does not grow deep in the woods.
Poison oak looks similar, although it may grow as a low bush rather than as a creeping vine. Its berries are yellow. It is more common in the West.
The oleoresin is released with just brushing against a leaf. It can also be carried on clothing, pet's fur, fire wood, gardening tools and in fact can overwinter on these objects and be just as powerful the next spring. If you know you have been exposed wash the area with water and detergent or laundry soap as soon as possible (within 20 minutes); it may still be helpful in preventing the sap from being carried to other parts of your body, if washed within 2 hrs of exposure. Place any contaminated clothing right into the washer and wash off any shoes and garden tools. If you can't avoid a poison ivy infested area, cover your exposed skin with Ivy Block, available at your drugstore. This is somewhat effective.
After exposure an itchy blistering, oozing and crusting red rash, often linear if produced by scratching, will appear within hours to days. If you have never had the rash before, it may even take up to two weeks. The fluid oozing from the blisters is not contagious: you can't spread the rash that way to other areas of your body or to someone else. It tends appear over days or even a week, depending on how much got on the skin during the initial exposure and how thin the skin. You have to be careful though that you don't continue to exposure yourself though contact with contaminated objects.
Treatment Don't scratch. Apply calamine lotion, not Caladryl, since the antihistamine ingredient may in itself cause an allergic skin reaction. Oral Benadryl or similar antihistamine may help you sleep if taken at bedtime. Sarna lotion or pramosine are also soothing and decrease the itching. Over the counter cortisone is usually too weak to do much good. A strong prescription steroid cream may help but should not be applied to the face. If large areas of the body are involved, or particular sensitive areas such as the eyes or the groin, you may want to ask your doctor for a tapering course of oral steroid such as prednisone. Know though that there have been a few reported cases of long term damage to joints and bones from even brief bursts of prednisone. H. Breder, MD
For more photos and description from New England Journal of Medicine, click here
