Island Life Magazine Ltd February/March 2015 | Page 74

FASHION HEALTH & BEAUTY

Allergy Centre among
the best in the world
T

housands of Island residents
suffer from some form of allergic
disorder. Conditions include
asthma, eczema, hay fever, bee and wasp
stings and a whole range of food allergies.
But here on the Island we are fortunate
to have one of the most advanced
asthma and allergy clinics, not just in
this country, but anywhere in the world.
The David Hide Asthma and Research
Centre, within the St Mary’s Hospital
complex, not only treats patients and
administers medication, but also carries
out vital research for the diagnosis and
management of allergy and allergyrelated disorders in adults and children.
Basically, the NHS Allergy Outpatient
Clinic is a ‘one-stop-shop’ service, with
clinics supported by specialist nurses, with
a specialist dietician also in attendance
when problems are considered to be food
related. Tests such as skin prick tests,
patch testing, respiratory and immunity
tests, are carried out to try to determine
the cause of the allergy, before they are
treated accordingly.
Naturally some allergies are far more
dangerous than others, and that is why
an increasing number of patients are
supplied with, and taught how to use
adrenaline auto-injectors, such as Epipen,
for emergency treatment of anaphylaxis
- an acute allergic reaction to an antigen
(e.g. peanut or a bee sting) to which the
body has become hypersensitive.
Allergies can begin at any age, and that is
why a detailed study, which began on the
Island back in 1989, now embraces three
generations of families - children, parents
and grandparents - providing valuable data
in the battle to give someone suffering
from an allergy as normal a life as possible.
Francis Mitchell has two roles within
the allergy clinic - that of NHS nurse and
research. She explained: “We are going
through a birth cohort with all the patients
recruited in 1989, and also have details
on whether their parents had an allergy.
So we have been able to monitor people
right from their birth, who are now 25
74

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Christine Townshend and Nicky
Tongue outside the Allergy Centre

"Many people
develop new allergies
throughout their lives"

years old, and we are now following their
children. We have an amazing amount of
data of three generations, and although
there is maybe one similar scheme in
Germany, we are ahead of the game
anywhere in the world.
“We recruited every child born on the
Island (1,536 children) in 1989, and for
the first two months of 1990 to take part
in a study to assess them for asthma and
allergies. When we last reviewed it, there
were still 90 per cent being monitored

because being an Island not many have
moved away.”
Christine Townshend, who manages
the NHS Asthma and Allergy Outpatient
Clinic, explained: “One in seven children
has a peanut allergy; one in eleven has
asthma; three to four per cent have a
cow’s milk allergy, and 70 per cent of
our queries are for food allergy and skin
related problems such as eczema and
urticaria. This is due to the incessant
itching associated with the later two
conditions and parents and patients are
desperate for relief, help and advice.
“More than 200 children up to the age
of 18 on the Island carry an adrenaline
auto-injector - which they can
administer for severe reactions related
to difficulty in breathing and throat
symptoms. Peanut and tree nut allergies
account for 70 per cent of the autoinjectors prescribed. Around 14 people