A plot point in a '90s anime was that a girl was injected with egg (albumin?). I assume it was intramuscular. Some time later, she eats some egg and goes into anaphylactic shock. The assassin’s intention was to make her death look natural.
Is this scenario even remotely possible? :dubious:
You mean they made her allergic to egg when she wasn’t before? I don’t think that’s possible. Allergies can and do develop over time with prolonged exposure, but I don’t think a single large dose will cause you to develop an allergy.
Actually, I’ve been taking weekly shots containing things I’m allergic to (not anaphylactic though) in order to relieve my allergy symptoms. It’s a year or two course of treatment though, not a quick, one-shot thing.
When I took the course at university many decades ago we were told it was a textbook fact that it took a minimum of two doses. Such ‘facts’ sometimes may be questioned or even refuted.
That’s not how allergies work.
IF the character the OP describes was destined to become allergic to egg protein, and IF she’d never had eggs before getting injected with egg protein, said injection could indeed sensitize her. And thus her next exposure to egg protein could result in anaphylaxis.
But that’s a powerful long string of coincidences to put together to hang a plot point on.
The woo/screenwriter explanation: this is egg protein > Viruses and bacteria have distinctive proteins on their shell that the immune system responds to > egg proteins would not normally be found in muscle tissue, so immune system attacks them > immune system is now sensitized to egg protein.
It sounds good until you come across somebody with enough medical knowledge to say (usually in amazement or horror*) “that’s not the body works!”