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FOR allergy sufferers, the idea that a simple home test can determine the source of their unpleasant symptoms is an appealing one.
Several websites offer DIY kits for as little as $70 promising to test for a number of common allergens using a small sample of blood.
With waiting lists at hospital allergy clinics up to a year long, doctors fear patients might be persuaded by the lure of home tests, which they say are unreliable.
The couple set up a company from their home in Haverings Close, Colchester, selling allergen-free produce.
Mukesh Haikerwal knows all too well the danger of a food allergy. It was 14 years ago that the Melbourne GP and former president of the Australian Medical Association first recognised symptoms of anaphylaxis in his then one-year-old son.
”As a father it was horrendous,” he says. ”You have this child that won’t settle and then you take off his top and he was beetroot red. I knew straight away it was an anaphylactic reaction.”
Convincing others to take his son’s nut allergy seriously was not as straightforward.
THE Staffords’ wristband appeal is set to smash its fundraising target.
Since last November, members of the public have been able to show their support for 3 Mercian in Afghanistan by purchasing an official wristband.
FUND-RAISER: The Staffords wristband.
THE rate of diabetes has increased by up to 40 per cent over five years in coastal retirement areas of NSW and has reached worryingly high levels in western Sydney – areas of the state least able to deal with the illness.
New analysis shows the incidence of diabetes in NSW has increased by an average of 27 per cent in that period.
”The actual numbers are huge and increasing. Looking at the figures, there’s no sign of it levelling off, which is pretty scary,” Alan Barclay, who prepared the data for the Australian Diabetes Council, said.
”It certainly will require provision of specific health professionals and services.
”We do know that people with diabetes end up in hospital far more often than people without diabetes.”