The research team, based at Newcastle General Hospital and Northumbria Health Care Trust, carried out a national ten-year study, which has been published recently in the Archives of Disease in Childhood. The team examined national death statistics for children up to the age of 15 years from 1990 to 1998. They also analysed monthly reports from the British Paediatric Surveillance System from 1998 to 2000. This collects data from 95 per cent of UK consultant paediatricians.
The statistics show that over the past ten years, only eight children died from an allergic reaction to food. As the UK population of children up to the age of 16 is numbered at 13 million, that gives a rate of 0.006 deaths for every 100,000 children, say the authors.
Five of the children who died were over ten years of age; one was nine years old, one five years old and one three months old. Milk was responsible for four of the deaths, peanuts for two and egg white for one. Another child with a 'mixed food' allergic reaction died from an overdose of epinephrine, which was used to treat it.
Between 1998 and 2000 there were six near-deaths, none of which was caused by peanuts, and 49 severe reactions, 10 of which were. Mixed food and cashew nuts accounted for 16.
Children with asthma as well as a food allergy seem to be more at risk of a severe reaction. Co-existing asthma featured in three of the deaths in the study, five of the near deaths and over half of the severe reactions.
The authors conclude, 'The finding of so few deaths in such a large population should reassure parents and doctors that the risk of death is small.' The authors calculate that if five per cent of the population of children in the UK has a food allergy, the risk of that child dying from his or her allergy would be one in 800,000 a year.
* Read the full paper on http://press.psprings.co.uk/adc/april/adc-01701.pdfNursery staff looking after allergic children should seek medical training from their local health authority on how to manage a severe allergic reaction to food. They should also work closely with the parents of any allergic child.
General information can be obtained from The British Allergy Foundation, Deepdene House, 30 Bellgrove Road, Welling, Kent DA16 3PY (0208 303 8525 or helpline 0208 303 8583).
