Nut Allergy Death from Anaphylactic Shock

The Northern Echo reports the tragic case of 32 year old Angus Myers who died from eating a curry that he was assured was nut free. Mr Myers collapsed and died from anaphylaxis after eating a takeaway curry. It is likely that despite assurances to the contrary, the curry contained peanut oil or almond oil. It is not clear whether an Epipen or other adrenaline auto-injector was administered.

Although deaths from nut or peanut allergy are extremely rare, this sad case demonstrates that they can and do happen. Dr Desa Lilic, a consultant immunologist at the University Hospital of North Durham, was quoted by the Northern Echo as advising people with nut allergy not to consume curries they have not made themselves.

Anti IgE Treatment May Help Allergic Asthma in Children

At a recent conference in the US results were published that the anti-IgE monoclonal antibody Omalizumab (Xolair) reduced allergic asthma exacerbations in children as young as six.

This is a new treatment not yet licenced in children, but has the potential to be extremely helpful in helping those with severe allergic asthma. There are also hopes that Omalizumab may have a role in controlling severe food allergy - particularly nut an dpeanut allergy,

Should Infants Eat Nuts

Department of Health guidelines say babies should not be fed nuts until they are two or three years old. Yet this advice is based on no evidence and may be positively harmful. The House of Lords report on allergies earlier this year called on the DoH to withdraw this advice, but so far this has been ignored. In the meantime, a new study published by Dr George du Toit in The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology suggests that children who are fed peanuts from an early age are ten times less likely to develop peanut allergy. The study looks at Jewish children in Israel (where infants eat peanuts from an early age) compared with the UK where we mostly avoid giving children nuts until they are much older


The best chance of answering the question once and for all is the LEAP Study which is taking children at risk of peaut allergy and under tightly controlled and randomised conditions feeding half the infants peanuts and keeping the other half off peanuts. In a few years time, we should see clear evidence either way.

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.