AMA supports allergy medicine at school


By LINDSEY TANNER AP Medical Writer
© 2007 The Associated Press

CHICAGO — The American Medical Association voted Monday to lobby for
laws allowing severely allergic children to bring lifesaving medicine
to school.

Many school districts have policies prohibiting children from
bringing medicine to school and 18 states have similar bans, said Dr.
Duane Cady, a member of the AMA's Board of Trustees.

When it comes to serious food allergies, denial of medicine at school
can be a matter of life and death, according to a measure AMA
delegates adopted at their annual policy meeting.

Dr. Mohammed Khan, a Buffalo, N.Y. physician, said his two children
have severe allergies to foods including peanuts.

"The moment they entered the school system, you have no control" over
getting them their medicine there, he said.

Khan said he had to hire a lawyer to fight one school district's
policies — something the AMA says parents shouldn't have to do.

The new AMA policy refers to medicine including prescription
epinephrine and other injectable drugs that treat severe allergic
reactions called anaphylaxis, which can cause swelling, difficulty
breathing, loss of consciousness and death.

"Life-threatening allergic reactions to foods can easily happen at
school or away from home, and an epinephrine injection at the first
sign of a reaction is critical," said AMA board member Dr. Rebecca
Patchin.

All states should have laws that allow children to protect
themselves, she said.

Food allergies affect about 12 million Americans, according to the
Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network. Each year, severe food allergies
send 30,000 people to emergency rooms and kill more than 100 people
nationwide.

Evidence suggests food allergies are increasing, and that reported
peanut allergies in U.S. children doubled to 0.8 percent from 1997 to
2003, according to the AMA measure.

The new policy also urges schools to develop preparedness plans for
dealing with severe allergic reactions and make sure that all
affected children have an individual emergency care plan.

___

On the Net:

AMA: http://www.ama-assn.org