Food Allergy: Guidelines for Managing an Untreatable Disease

Food allergy is a disease that has no treatment. A public health problem becoming increasingly more prevalent, food allergy can only be managed by avoiding allergens or through treating the symptoms after a reaction.

Additionally, it can prove troublesome diagnosing food allergy because many food intolerances can easily be mistaken for food allergies.

In order to address these issues and concerns, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) sponsored a report to develop concise clinical guidelines concerning food allergy. Working with 34 professional organizations, federal agencies, and patient advocacy groups, NIAID produced guidelines for healthcare professionals on how best to diagnose and manage food allergy as well as how to treat acute food allergy reactions.

The guidelines define food, food allergy, and food allergens. They tell patients, among many other things, how food allergy develops, how to manage food allergy, and what to do in the case of anaphylaxis.

The Guidelines for the Diagnosis and Management of Food Allergy in the United States: Report of the NIAID-sponsored Expert Panel can be found here: http://www.niaid.nih.gov/topics/foodallergy/clinical/Pages/default.aspx

NIAID says that a summary for patients and families will be available in early 2011.