Guidelines to manage food allergies now finalised

To help standardise how food allergies are diagnosed and managed in the United States, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) worked with more than 30 professional organizations, federal agencies and advocacy groups over the course of 2 years to develop the newly-published Guidelines for the Diagnosis and Management of Food Allergy.

The Guidelines are aimed at both primary care physicians and specialists, in recognition that the diagnosis and management of food allergies has expanded beyond the domain of allergists. Until now, no standard clinical recommendations have been available to aid healthcare professionals in diagnosing, treating or managing patients with known or suspected food allergy.

A summary supplement to the Guidelines is scheduled for publication online in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology in December 2010. To maximise exposure of the new guidelines to the target audience, the journals of several professional associations that participated in the development will also print a summary of the guidelines.

In conjunction with the release of the Guidelines and Summary, interviews with four leaders in the guideline development have provided interviews which are freely available from the AAAAI website and can be downloaded below. In these interviews, Drs Anthony Fauci, Matthew Fenton, Daniel Rotrosen and Hugh Sampson each provide insights into various aspects of the new Guidelines.

Downloads: AAAAI Guidelines and Summary Interview. [PDF 1.4 MB]