Researchers find about one in seven children have repeat episode
TUESDAY, July 14, 2015 (HealthDay News) — About 15 percent of children who have a severe allergic reaction can have a second one within a few hours, according to a new study published online June 22 in the Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology.
The study team looked at the medical records of 484 children seen in an emergency department for severe allergic reactions. The researchers sought to determine whether the children had a second, follow-up reaction.
About one in seven childen had a second reaction, the researchers found. “We found that 75 percent of the secondary reactions occurred within six hours of the first,” lead author Waleed Alqurashi, M.D., from the University of Ottawa in Canada, said in an American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology news release.
“A more severe first reaction was associated with a stronger possibility of a second reaction. Children aged 6 to 9, children who needed more than one dose of epinephrine, and children who did not get immediate epinephrine treatment were among the most likely to develop secondary reactions,” Alqurashi said. At least half of the second allergic reactions were considered serious and had to be treated with epinephrine.
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