Anaphylaxie alimentaire sévère et léthale : cas rapportés en 2002 par les réseau d'allergovigilance
(2003) Revue française d’allergologie et d’immunologie clinique — n° 43, p. 480-485 (2003)
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- Authors
Pirson, Françoise 
- Abstract
- (fr) The prevalence of food allergy in the French population is estimated to be 3.24%. The constant increase in this prevalence is related to environmental factors: drugs, tobacco, new foods, new food ingredients and new food technology, all leading to increased allergenicity of ingredients. We decided that it was necessary to develop a system of food allergy vigilance to provide a continuous flow of information about the risk of allergy to new foods and data on the incidence of serious food-induced anaphylaxis. Therefore, a French Allergy Vigilance Network was set up in 2001; it now involves 250 French allergists. One hundred and seven cases of severe anaphylaxis (including two deaths) in 33 children and 74 adults were reported in 2002. Anaphylactic shock was reported in 59.8% of the cases involved (one fatal, to peanut); 18.7% were other systemic reactions, including 15.9% with laryngeal angioedema, 5.6% with serious acute asthma (one fatal, to soy). The most frequent allergens were peanut (14 cases), other nuts (16 cases), shellfish (nine cases), the latex-fruit group (nine cases), lupine flour (seven cases), wheat flour (seven cases), celery (five cases) and snails (five cases). The seriousness of these reactions was underestimated, as epinephrine was administered in only 59% of the cases. Several public interest measures should now be taken: communicate information about the new risk factors to the food industry, advise them to improve labelling, and encourage hospital catering services to set up guidelines for food safety. Setting up the same sort of network in other European countries could lead to a significant advance in knowledge with regard to the peculiarities of allergies relating to a wide variety of eating habits. Data that would be obtained by allergy networks similar to ours would be useful to French and other European health agencies responsible for making decisions concerning the safety of foods.
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Citations
Morisset, M., Boulègue, M., Pirson, F., Gallen, C., & Moneret-Vautrin, D. A. (2003). Anaphylaxie alimentaire sévère et léthale : cas rapportés en 2002 par les réseau d’allergovigilance. Revue française d’allergologie et d’immunologie clinique, 43, 480-485. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/116224 (Original work published 2003)