FAAN Applauds Call by National Institutes of Health for an Increased Focus on Food Allergy
An expert panel convened by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) at the request of Congress says food allergy “has emerged as an important public health problem” and calls for increased research to discover its causes and develop treatments.
It also recognizes the wide range of consequences that food allergy can have. The panel’s long-awaited report, released on June 5, says: “In addition to the psychological effects of the risk of death and the stigma of avoiding common foods, food allergy has nutritional impacts on the health, development, and lifestyle of children.”
The report also provides a clear set of research priorities for food allergy, noting that “even with assiduous avoidance of known food allergens, each year approximately one of every four allergic individuals will have an accidental exposure that leads to a food-induced reaction.”
“FAAN applauds NIH and members of Congress for recognizing the seriousness of food allergy and the urgency of finding ways to treat and prevent it,” said FAAN CEO and founder Anne Muñoz-Furlong, who, at NIH’s invitation, was a panel observer. “We hope that Congress will now allocate enough funding to implement the panel’s recommendations.”
To view NIH’s press release on the panel’s report, click here.
To view the full report, click here. |
