Impact of allergies

In New South Wales approximately 1 in 20 children and in about 1 in 100 adults have at least one food allergy. That's about 65,000 children and 96,000 adults.

From the Access Economics report The economic impact of allergic disease in Australia: not be sneezed at released by the Australasian Society of Clinical Immunology and Allergy on 13 November 2007…

Allergies are chronic immunological disorders that occur when a person's immune system mounts and abnormal response to substances in the environment – allergens – that do not normally bother other people.

Australia and New Zealand have among the highest prevalence of allergic disorders in the developed world.

Literature evidence indicates increases in the prevalence of many types of allergies in recent decades.

For example, hospital admissions for food anaphylaxis in Australia have doubled over the last decade, and increased five-fold in children aged 0-4 years.

Peanut allergy has doubled in prevalence in young children over a five year period.

In children with severe food allergy, management in the community is complex and has the potential to cause anxiety within affected families regarding care in schools, risk of death and the need or otherwise for injectable adrenaline.

In per capita terms, this amounts to a financial cost of around $1912 per person with allergies per annum. Including the value of lost wellbeing, the cost is $7200 per person per annum.

Individuals with allergies bear 48% of these financial costs.

Raising awareness of the economic and health impacts of allergic and immune disorders is an important factor in facilitating the early recognition and control of allergenic disease.

Allergies in Australia

It's estimated that in 2007 4.1 million Australians – almost 20% of the population – have at least one allergy.
Allergies are grouped as:

• allergic rhinitis or hayfever and conjunctivitis
• allergic asthma
• allergic chronic sinusitis, and
• other allergies which include food, drug, latex, sting and bite allergies, hives or nettle rash, contact dermatitis and anaphylaxis, among other disorders.

In 2007 the financial cost of all allergies was $7.8 billion.