Allergic contact dermatitis due to an insect repellent: double sensitization to picaridin and methyl glucose dioleate.

Sir, Picaridin, a piperidine derivate, is a promising insect repellent that has been available to the consumer since 1998 (1). Picaridin protects against arthropods in a similar fashion to diethyl toluamide (deet), which is considered the gold standard compound (2, 3). Picaridin is also better tolerated than deet (1, 4), a fact that has encouraged its use in repellent formulations. We describe here the first case of contact allergy to picaridin consequent to the application of an insect repellent aerosol for cutaneous use. Furthermore the patient was also sensitized to methyl glucose dioleate, an emulsifier of the aerosol, confirming its sensitizing potential.