Draft food allergy guidelines released

The US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health has issued draft Guidelines for the Diagnosis and Management of Food Allergy to provide standardised information to health care professionals about how to diagnose and manage food allergy, and treat acute food allergy reactions.

The guidelines are based on an independent review of the scientific and clinical food allergy literature. Information gathered from the literature review was incorporated into a full report on the state-of-the-science in food allergy that will be made available after the publication of the final guidelines.

The guidelines cover the following topics:

• Definition and prevalence of food allergy
• Natural history of food allergy and closely associated diseases
• Diagnosis of food allergy
• Management of non-acute allergic reactions to food
• Management of acute allergic reactions to food, including anaphylaxis, a severe, whole-body reaction

Public comments have been sought, and will be reviewed by the coordinating committee, expert panel and NIAID. Where appropriate, these comments will be used to develop final guidelines. The final guidelines are expected to be released by July 2010.

The draft guidelines and more information on their development may be found at the NIAID Food Allergy Guidelines Web page.