The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 268 No 7191 p419-425
30 March 2002

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Few child deaths from food allergy

The risk of death from food allergies in children is small, researchers say. If 5 per cent of the child population have food allergy, the risk that children will die from a food-related allergic reaction is about 1 in 800,000 per year.

Between 1990 and 2000, there were eight deaths from food allergies among children aged 0-15 years (incidence of 0.006 deaths per 100,000 children per year), four of whom died from an allergy to milk. There were no deaths from peanut allergy in children under 13 years.

Food-allergic children with asthma may be at higher risk than those without asthma. Inhaled salbutamol, together with intramuscular epinephrine and rapid transfer to hospital, might be better emergency treatment than epinephrine alone in these children, they say (Archives of Disease in Childhood 2002;86:236).

CPD: Food allergy — a case study (PDF* 45K), p435

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