BMJ No 7140 Volume 316
Press Releases Saturday 25 April 1998
SOME YOUNG CHILDREN MAY GROW OUT OF PEANUT
ALLERGY
ANTIBIOTIC PROPHYLAXIS COULD HELP PREVENT
RESPIRATORY INFECTIONS IN THE CRITICALLY ILL
BEWARE OF ADVERSE DRUG REACTIONS
TACKLING THE LONG TERM PROBLEM OF ANTIBIOTIC
RESISTANCE
SOME YOUNG CHILDREN MAY GROW OUT OF PEANUT ALLERGY
(Resolution of peanut allergy: case-control study)
www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/316/7140/1271
Like children who develop allergies to cows milk or eggs, a proportion
of
young children who develop a sensitivity to peanuts early in life seem
to
grow out of their reaction as they get older, say Dr Jonathan Hourihane
et
al in this week's BMJ. Based on findings from
research conducted at the
University of Southampton and South Manchester University Hospitals,
the
authors stress that children who seem to have a peanut allergy
should be
evaluated by a specialist food allergy unit, as the allergy may not
be as
severe as initially thought.
Hourihane et al cite previous research which suggests that changes in
the
dietary habits of the British population towards vegetarianism and
the
increasing use of peanut butter as a snack food may be linked to a
recently
observed decrease in the age of onset of peanut allergy.
Contact:
Dr Jonathan Hourihane, Lecturer, Institute of Child Health, London
J.Hourihane{at}ich.ucl.ac.uk
Dr Stephen Roberts, Consultant Paediatrician, Withington Hospital,
Manchester
ANTIBIOTIC PROPHYLAXIS COULD HELP PREVENT RESPIRATORY
INFECTIONS IN THE CRITICALLY ILL
(Effectiveness of antibiotic prophylaxis in critically ill adult patients:
systematic review of randomised controlled trials)
www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/316/7140/1275
Over 40 per cent of patients who need ventilation in intensive care
develop
respiratory tract infections. In this week's BMJ Dr Alessandro
Liberati et
al, from the Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research in
Italy,
investigate the use of antibiotic prophylaxis to prevent this type
of
infection happening.
The authors found that if the most effective antibiotic prophylaxis
was
used, the numbers of respiratory tract infections fell by over two
thirds
and overall mortality was reduced in critically ill patients.
However,
Liberati et al warn that these positive effects do not take account
of
potential antibiotic resistance if such a practice was undertaken on
a
widespread scale and suggest that further research is undertaken in
this
area.
Contact:
Dr Alessandro Liberati, Italian Cochrane Centre, Laboratory of Health
Services Research, Mario Negri Institute, Milan Italy
liberati{at}irfmn.mnegri.it
BEWARE OF ADVERSE DRUG REACTIONS
(Adverse drug reactions)
www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/316/7140/1295
Adverse drug reactions have taken over from syphilis and tuberculosis
as
the great mimics of other diseases and yet the importance of adverse
drug
reactions is often underestimated, say Dr Munir Pirmohamed et al from
the
Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics at the University of Liverpool
in this week's BMJ. They say that such reactions are common,
can be life
threatening and sometimes unnecessarily expensive. The authors
make a
series of recommendations for clinicians to help them improve the
likelihood of patients not incurring adverse reactions to drug treatments.
They conclude by saying that prescribing doctors should always be aware
of
the toxic profile of the drugs they prescribe and that they should
be ever
vigilant for the occurrence of unexpected adverse reactions.
Contact:
Dr Munir Pirmohamed, Senior Lecturer in Clinical Pharmacology, Department
of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, University of Liverpool, Liverpool
munirp{at}liv.ac.uk
TACKLING THE LONG TERM PROBLEM OF ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANCE
(Antibiotic resistance: an increasing problem?)
www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/316/7140/1255
In an editorial in this week's BMJ Professor Hart from the University
of
Liverpool considers the conclusions drawn by the House of Lords
Select
Committee on Science and Technology which offers answers to the concerns:
is there a problem of antibiotic resistance; how does resistance
arise;
whose fault is it and what can be done to overcome the problem?
Contact:
Professor C Hart, Professor of Medical Microbiology, University of
Liverpool, PO Box 147 Liverpool
cahmm{at}liv.ac.uk
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Advancement of Science (www.eurekalert.org)
Please remember to mention the BMJ as source when publicising an article
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