favism /fā″vizəm/ [It, fava, bean] , an acute hemolytic anemia caused by ingestion of the beans or inhalation of the pollen from the Vicia faba (fava) plant. Sensitive individuals have a genetic deficiency of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase, usually the result of a hereditary biochemical abnormality of the erythrocytes. Symptoms include dizziness, headache, vomiting, fever, jaundice, eosinophilia, and often diarrhea. The condition occurs primarily in persons of southern Italian extraction and is treated by blood transfusion and avoidance of fava beans and pollen. See also glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency.
