Allergy/Asthma News

The ongoing shortage of EpiPen supply — now entering its fifth month — has intersected with the high demand for auto-injectors when children return to school.

In a collaborative effort between the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the NIH and the Children’s National Health System in Washington D.C., the institutions established a partnership to promote research on pediatric allergic, infectious, autoinflammatory and immunologic disease. The partnership, established in 2017, met today at a symposium highlighting their current and upcoming research.

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.

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.

Children who have an immunoglobulin E-mediated allergy are less likely to have complicated appendicitis than children without allergies, with less time spent in the hospital following surgery, according to findings published in JAMA Pediatrics.

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.