Fatal anaphylaxis: what are the risks?

The UK media recently reported two tragic cases involving death from anaphylaxis, both involving food from a high-street retail chain (bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-45617845; bbc.co.uk/news/uk-45774709). One of these was a child. The publication of a wide-ranging review of fatal anaphylaxis is therefore timely (Pouessel G et al. Clin Exp Allergy 2018. doi: 10.1111/cea.13287). They analysed and compared 32 different studies which reported epidemiological and risk factor data from 9 countries, in children and adults.

In spite of public perceptions, anaphylaxis deaths remain rare: less than 1 per million population per year for all causes, of which only 0.03 to 0.3/million/year are food-related. These may be underestimates because of misattribution of cause of death. In most countries the fatality rate has changed little over the past 2 decades, in spite of allergy becoming more prevalent. In the UK, there was a total of 39 deaths from food-related anaphylaxis in children between 1992 and...

from Archives of Disease in Childhood current issue https://ift.tt/2DObfrx