Child allergy rates at ‘epidemic proportions’
Tuesday, March 9th, 2010Childhood allergy rates have hit “epidemic proportions” in Australia, prompting health experts to broaden their efforts to combat the mysterious condition.
Canberra-based allergy expert Dr Ray Mullins said 15,000 Australian children born this year would develop a potentially fatal food allergy before they reached school age.
Food allergies - particularly allergies to peanuts and tree nuts - were a growing problem with no known cause, and they now affected three to six per cent of children under the age of three.
“This translates to 65,000 little kids with food allergy before they reach school age, (including) 25,000 now with peanut or tree nut allergies”, Dr Mullins said today.
“On current birth rates, another 15,000 kids born every year will develop food allergy in the first few years of life.
“It’s a public health problem of epidemic proportions.”
