Are Schools Prepared To Deal With Serious Allergies Of Pupils?

Severe allergies are on the rise, but a survey of schools in Scotland suggests that many of them are ill-prepared to protect their pupils, as reported by Aziz Sheikh and colleagues in the international open-access medical journal PLoS Medicine.

Foods are the most common trigger of anaphylaxis, a severe and potentially life threatening allergic reaction, in children. Anaphylaxis can develop both in people known to have a tendency (risk) of getting the condition, or in those with no known risk. Sheikh and colleagues mailed questionnaires to 250 Scottish schools, of which 148 replied. 90 of them reported having at least one child with a known risk of developing anaphylaxis. Of those, most had at least one staff member trained to treat anaphylaxis, and almost all had the drug adrenaline (epinephrine) on site, which is a life-saving medication for treating anaphylaxis. However, many of the schools were doing poorly at reducing the risk of anaphylaxis -- for example, only 1 in 3 of these schools banned the sharing of eating utensils. Another worrying finding was that among the 58 schools that did not have children known to be at risk of anaphylaxis, less than half had a trained member of staff and only about 1 in 8 of these schools had adrenaline on site.

The study suggests that there needs to be detailed guidance for all schools in Scotland on preventing and treating anaphylaxis.

Citation: Rankin KE, Sheikh A (2006) Serious shortcomings in the management of children with anaphylaxis in Scottish schools. PLoS Med 3(8): e326.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.0030326

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CONTACT:
Aziz Sheikh
Edinburgh University
Division of Community Health Sciences
General Practice Section
20 West Richmond St
Edinburgh, EH8 9DX United Kingdom
aziz.sheikh@ed.ac.uk

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