School well prepared to deal with food allergies

Staff at a Wanganui primary school are well placed to deal with food allergy reactions.

Preliminary results of a school-based survey show 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 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.

Brunswick Primary School principal Jan Clark said the anaphylactic allergy plan had recently been reviewed.

Two students at the school have severe peanut allergies, although neither had yet had an anaphylactic episode.

"We're always prepared, we have staff professional development each year to make sure that all of our staff are well informed.

"We all know how to use the EpiPen [epinephrine auto-injector], we've practised them on ourselves, and we have an action plan for every child."

Bags containing EpiPens for the allergic children had their photos on and were kept in the staff room so any child could collect them in an emergency.

"Although we don't totally ban nuts at the school, we request very nicely that parents don't include peanuts or other nuts in their child's lunch."

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 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, and 1-3 per cent for nuts.

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

Reactions usually occur within minutes of contact with food, and involve 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 touching the food is enough for 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 for allergic reactions had always existed, although exposure to a wider variety of foods had caused more reactions, Dr Liang said.

Sesame seed allergies were common among Jewish people, while kiwifruit allergies in Germany were serious enough to cause anaphylactic shock and deaths in some cases.

While deaths from nut allergies in New Zealand were uncommon, they had occurred. Avoidance was the best remedy. - APNZ