Allergy/Asthma

Black adolescents with poorly controlled asthma who participated in a family- and community-based treatment plan for 6 months experienced significantly improved lung function and medication adherence, and the plan also reduced hospitalizations and the frequency of symptoms, according to a study results published in Pediatrics.

There is an established link between Lone Star tick bites and red meat allergy, but chiggers — or the Trombiculidae mite — may be another source of immunoglobulin E antibodies that contribute to this allergy, research published in The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology suggests.

Teenagers who excessively consumed beverages with free, or added, fructose had a fivefold increase in allergy symptoms, according to an analysis of National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data recently published in Annals of Family Medicine.

Screening younger siblings of peanut allergic children with allergy testing before peanut introduction was considered controversial in a paper written by Elissa M. Abrams, MD, of the department of pediatrics at the University of Manitoba in Canada and colleagues.

Ted Eickhoff understood the intersection of public health and the infectious disease practitioner, effectively using his editorial pulpit at Infectious Disease News to promote dialogue and discourse on the rapidly changing circumstances that would dictate public health policy. He recognized the ever-evolving microbial world’s impact on not only the individual patient, but on the community at large, and remained at the forefront, ensuring that infectious disease practitioners received needed information in a timely manner so they could remain staunch public health partners. A profession is traditionally defined by its common body of knowledge. As with the 1910 Flexner Report that proved revolutionary for medical education in the United States, the 1915 Welch-Rose report presented to the General Education Board of the Rockefeller Foundation outlined public health as a profession in which “Unity is to be found rather in the end to be accomplished. ... Public Health is not a single profession in the traditional sense and is best defined by its shared goals rather than its disparate means. Articulating who we are and what we do remains one of our greatest challenges.”

The FDA is taking steps to alleviate EpiPen shortages by extending the expiration date of certain lots of 0.3 mg products by 4 months.

Today, the FDA granted approval to the first generic version of EpiPen and EpiPen Jr autoinjector for treating life-threatening allergic reactions, or anaphylaxis, to insect bites or stings, foods, medications, latex and other causes, in adults and children who weigh more than 33 pounds, according to a press release.

The FDA granted breakthrough therapy designation to the injectable prescription medicine Xolair for preventing severe allergic reactions after accidental exposure to one or more foods in those with allergies, the manufacturer of the drug announced in a press release.

Eating fast foods, particularly hamburgers, three or more times a week correlated to asthma in a dose-response pattern, according to a systematic review recently published in Respirology.

The bites of Lone Star ticks can influence the amount of immunoglobulin A antibodies related to alpha gal a patient may have. An allergy to alpha gal, or mammalian meat allergy, may contribute to many cases of anaphylaxis in teens and adults that would have otherwise been labeled as idiopathic.