Anaphylaxis fatalities and admissions in Australia
In an upcoming issue of The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, Liew, et al., examine the causes and demographics of anaphylaxis deaths in Australia in a 9-year period and compared trends in the rates of anaphylaxis hospitalizations and fatalities in recent years. They found that the rate of anaphylaxis deaths in Australia is 0.64 per million people per year, nearly twice the United Kingdom estimate of 0.33 deaths per million people per year.
The relative number of deaths to hospital admissions was 1 per 1,000 for food-triggered anaphylaxis and 11 per 1,000 for non-food anaphylaxis. In this current study, the causes of anaphylaxis were predominantly drug and probable drug (57 percent), followed by insect sting (18 percent) and food (6 percent).
The authors also found the anaphylaxis fatalities occurred most frequently from food in patients ages 8 to 35; from insect sting in patients ages 35 to 84; and from drugs in patients ages 55 to 85. Food anaphylaxis death rates in Australia remained stable over the study period despite the rising prevalence of food anaphylaxis hospitalizations, suggesting that management strategies have been successful.
