Royal Society of Medicine - Allergies and Me

I attended the excellent Royal Society of Medicine event Allergies and Me yesterday.

Speakers included Dr Pam Ewan from Addenbrokes, Professor Barry Kay from Imperial, Dr Shuaib Nasser from Addenbrookes and Mandy East from the Anaphylaxis Campaign.

A few of the tit bits I picked up on include the fact that it is extremely rare for anyone to require a second dose of adrenaline following an anaphylactic reaction. Dr Nasser explained that in his clinic anaohylactic reactions happen quite often during immunotherapy treatments when patients are given injections of allergens including drugs that they are allergic to. Dr Nasser said he had never had to give a second dose of adrenaline. This came up during a heated discussion of how many epipens you ought to be prescribed. Personally we have four - two at home and two at school.

A lot of discussion about the lack of NHS provision and the continuing unmet need. Not very many answers although it was good to hear of NHS funding for a pilot centre of excellence in the North West.