Australians hospitalised with life-threatening allergic reactions up by 50%

Rise in anaphylaxis admission rates over 14-year period reveals urgent need to prevent food allergies from developing, say researchers

Australians are increasingly being hospitalised for severe and life-threatening allergic reactions, known as anaphylaxis, researchers from the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute in Melbourne have found.

Researchers analysed 14 years of hospital data to 2012, extracting admissions for anaphylaxis. Anaphylaxis admission rates increased by 50% over this period, they found. Rates increased rapidly in the final half of the period, with 5.6 people per 100,000 hospitalised with food anaphylaxis in 2005, compared with 8.2 by 2012.