‘It’s one of the great mysteries of our time’: why extreme food allergies are on the rise – and what we can do about them | Allergies | The Guardian
On the rise and more forms of allergies.
Issues with schools not having allergy policies. Issues of Epi-pens, how many there are in a school and how they could struggle to find them
Positive? Maybe statistics on actual deaths.
"Researchers at Imperial College London found that from 1998 to 2018, deaths from food anaphylaxis actually decreased. Of those admitted to hospital with food anaphylaxis, 0.7% died in 1998 whereas in 2018 this had fallen to 0.2%.* *On the other hand, the number of families living every day with the possibility that this might happen to their children is much greater than it was 20 years ago. Hospital admissions for food anaphylaxis have increased from 1.23 per 100,000 people in 1998 to 4.04 per 100,000 in 2018: an annual increase of 5.7%. The largest increase in hospital admissions for food anaphylaxis has been among children younger than 15. The most common single cause of fatal anaphylaxis in this age group is now not peanuts but cow’s milk."
And a 2013 study
One in 10 children has a food allergy. Many sufferers and their parents experience anxiety about the possibility of a severe and life-threatening allergic reaction, called anaphylaxis, but until now no studies have estimated how common death from such reactions is.
Based on data from 13 studies worldwide, researchers at Imperial College London calculated that for any person with a food allergy, the chance of dying from anaphylaxis in one year is 1.81 in a million. For children and young people aged 0-19, the risk is 3.25 in a million.
By comparison, in Europe the risk of being murdered is 11 in a million and of dying from accidental causes is 324 in a million over a year.
However, for the parents of children with allergies:
"One of the great dilemmas of parenthood is learning how to avoid driving yourself crazy with worry when there are dangers to your child all around. Babies are a defenceless bundle of needs, which is what makes it so terrifying and wonderful to be the person in charge of trying to keep them alive. In the case of parents of children with persistent food allergies, that terror is magnified many times over and continues long after babyhood. The fear can hit in the most mundane places: in supermarket aisles, at a cafe, in a school classroom. Studies have suggested that the anxiety levels of parents of children with food allergies are comparable to those of people with cancer or who have had a heart attack"
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