Anaphylaxis 101 - Sabrina's law or Bill 3

[Alexa]

Children will start soon school again. Are they ready? Do they have any protection against anaphylactic shock in their school ?

Are you familiar with Sabrina's law, also known as Bill3 ?

I've found an interesting article concerning anaphylaxis for those interested.

According to a release from the Government of Ontario, the legislation requires that, as of January 1, 2006, all public school boards have policies that include:

. Training for school staff on dealing with life-threatening allergies on a regular basis (this would include training on the administering of EpiPens®);
. School administration will have prevention plans to protect students who are at risk for anaphylaxis;
. Emergency procedures in place for responding to an allergic child if he/she were to have an allergy reaction.

What is anaphylaxis?
Anaphylaxis is a serious allergic reaction that can be life threatening. Some of the most common causes of these reactions are insect stings, medicine and latex. The most common food allergens that cause reactions when ingested are peanuts, tree nuts, seafood, and egg and milk products.

What is anaphylactic shock?
Also according to Anaphylaxis Canada, anaphylactic shock is "an explosive reaction of the body's immune system to a triggering agent (allergen). It can be characterized by swelling, difficulty breathing, abdominal cramps, vomiting, diarrhea, circulatory collapse, coma and death."

Symptoms of anaphylactic shock tend to develop rapidly, though their initial onset can be deceivingly mild. This is why it is so important to teach allergic children to recognize the symptoms and to react immediately by telling an adult to get help.

Some symptoms to watch for include:
. uneasiness, upset and red in the face
. rapid heartbeat
. itchiness
. throbbing in the ears
. sneezing
. coughing
. difficulty breathing

source :
http://backtoschool.sympatico.msn.ca/FoodAndNutrition/Articles/Anaphylaxis101.htm

[Leto]

Add blue cheese and penicillin antibiotic drugs to the list, I did a shock with one antibiotic drugs and now have to avoid them (and should wear a tag about it, although I think about getting it tattooed with my blood group.

[Alexa]

I'm not familiar with the politic of antibiotics in France. Do doctors give easily antibiotics ? In Québec they give you only when the fever is high and they check your history first.

I'll have to check for a blue cheese reaction.

[Leto]

Depends on the doctor. Mine are reluctants. But penicillin is still the main antibiotic used here.
And for blue cheese, the explanation is simple. The bacteria responsible for the blue part is a sibling to the penicillin. Some have allergy only to the antibiotic one, some - as me - have allergy to the whole family.
And the reaction is 2 times out of 3 anaphylaxis shock.

[knivesout]

How big a deal is this? No one ever died of a bad allegic reaction throughouit my school life. I realise that schools need to make sure they're prepared so that students don;'t die in the off-chance something does happen, and in litigious societies like the US I guess they need to be covered, but it just seems like another manifestation of the 'culture of threat' that I see growing in some western regions.

Of course, it's good to be prepared and everyting, but I just think it's more of an 'expect the worst' kind of measure than something everyone needs to worry about.

[Leto]

JP, kids nowadays are more allergic than old people as us. Now, in kindergarten it's not rare to have 1/4 of the classroom with one type of severe allergy or another (peanuts, eggs, asthma or else). Some says higher rate of pollution in big cities is a cause of it.

[knivesout]

Seriously? Well, so much for human evolution then. Can it really be related to pollution though? I thought an allergy was something congenital, or inherent?

[Leto]

Seriously yes.
Potential to be allergic is inherited, but the fact you'll develop one specific type of allergy is a mix betwen genes and environment.
Got a friend midly allergic to dust, his wife is not allergic. Their two kids developed severes allergies - one to eggs and banana, the other one to peanuts and peanut oil.

[knivesout]

Hmm. This is pretty odd. I have only two or three friends who have any serious allergies (seafood, cheese, cheese). I'm mildly allergic to dust myself (I also used to be severely asthmatic, but not anymore), but it's not a big issue. Intersting - I mean, I'd like to read more about why cases of allergies are increasing.

[Leto]

If I come across an english written article about it, i'll post it.

and a tip for people with mild allergy or kids with mild allergy who want to get a cat. Get a kitten and use the cat to be washed and brushed everyday. A simple wetted towel on the coat is enough. It's not the fur people are allergic at but something in the saliva, cat pout on their coats while cleaning themselves.