School prepared for allergies

Staff at a Rotorua primary school are braced to deal with a life-threatening food allergy reaction.

Preliminary results of a school-based survey reveal 8.5 per cent of students are allergic to one or more foods, with reactions ranging from itchy skin to life-threatening anaphylactic shock.

The findings came from the long-running CensusAtSchool survey project hosted by the Auckland University statistics department, with Statistics New Zealand and the Education Ministry. Milk, eggs, peanuts and tree nuts were the most common food allergies identified.

Kaharoa School administration officer Sheryn Shoebridge said one child at the school suffered an anaphylactic allergy to nuts, but not peanuts.

An action plan if an anaphylactic shock were to occur was in place. "We also take that child around the school every term and make sure that the children and the teachers know who the child is."

All staff at the school were also trained in the use of an EpiPen [epinephrine auto-injector] if anaphylactic shock were to occur, Ms Shoebridge said. "Usually the children that have these allergies are really good and know themselves how to handle these things.

"We did have a child in the past who had a peanut allergy, and if she saw anybody who had peanut butter or anything like that, she would just put herself elsewhere.

"It's about awareness really."

Allergy New Zealand chief executive Penny Jorgensen said self-reported rates of food allergy were always higher than rates based on doctor diagnosis.

The interim findings came from 2800 survey respondents aged 10 to 18. Up to 30,000 students, from 539 schools are expected to take part by the survey's completion.

Paediatric allergy specialist Dr Allen Liang said the generally accepted figure for milk allergies was 3-5 per cent of the population, while 1-3 per cent were allergic to nuts.

While children could grow out of milk and egg allergies, nut allergy sufferers were not so fortunate, he said.

Allergies usually occur within minutes of contact with food, and involve an exaggerated immune response causing symptoms including eczema, itchy skin, swelling, wheeze, vomiting and diarrhoea.

In the worst cases patients can suffer anaphylactic shock, a rare, life-threatening reaction that can involve constricted breathing and a collapse in blood pressure.

In some cases simply touching the food is enough to provoke a reaction.

A global trend showed all food allergies were increasing, with a rise in food additives a possible culprit, Dr Liang said.

The genetic ability to suffer an allergic reaction had always existed, however greater exposure to a wider variety of foods had caused the prevalence of reactions.

While deaths from nut allergies in New Zealand were uncommon, they had occurred.