Poison ivy belongs to the family of Anacrdiceae.
It is mainly found in US and Canada.
With the increase in real estate development close to forests, the amount of people coming in contact with the ivy has increased by many folds.
What makes the poison ivy so dangerous is the fact that it can produce a highly efficient irritant known as the Urushiol oil.
As the name indicates it is an oil based irritant which can easily diffuse through the cell membranes of the skin causing an allergic reaction which can proceed to become a blister.
In this article I would like to shed some light on identification and treatment for the ivy exposure.
Identifying ivy is fairly simple.
It grows either in the form of a woody shrub or as vine on some large trees.
Both these types of ivy have a unique type of leaves arrangement.
The leaves are arranged in a cluster of three, this is called as trifoliate arrangement.
One of the leaf stalk will be longer than the other two leaves making it easy to differentiate this plant from others belonging to the same family.
Further more the poison ivy does not have any thorns.
Most people have this imagination of a poison plant to be covered with thorns however poison ivy has no thorns.
On close examination one can find that the leaves are arranged on an alternate fashion on the plant.
This is unique for the ivy.
These three factors are the most important points to identify an ivy.
There are other things which can be used to identify this plant however such pointers are also present on other plants too.
Upon contact with the ivy the oil diffuses through the skin causing an allergic reaction commonly called as contact dermatitis.
It is very rare that a human can suffer life threatening reactions however, if someone is very sensitive to the oil they might undergo anaphylactic reactions which might be life threatening.
The treatment of the ivy exposure is mostly self treatment and does not require any hospitalization.
One should thoroughly cleanse the exposure site with clean water and mild soaps to wash way any remnants of the irritant.
If the duration for exposure has been more than 10min then it might lead to poison ivy rash.
There are many cover the counter products which might help to relieve the itching sensation around the blister.
Cooling the skin using ice packs is also recommended to reduce the itch.