First Aid Course Canberra. Here are the details on how to treat anaphylaxis. Even if you don’t get to one of our first aid courses you will have the information to help.
What is anaphylaxis?
Anaphylaxis is a serious allergic response that often involves swelling, hives, lowered blood pressure and in severe cases, shock and death. Anaphylaxis requires immediate medical treatment, including a prompt injection of epinephrine and a trip to a hospital emergency room. If anaphylactic shock isn’t treated immediately, it can be fatal.
Isn’t this a FD/Paramedic issue?
Ideally, yes. However, if you are on patrol you may be the closest to respond to the 911 call. Anaphylaxis is a severe and sudden allergic reaction. It occurs within minutes of exposure to an allergen. If not treated appropriately, anaphylaxis can turn deadly very quickly. Anaphylactic shock can also occur while a suspect is in your custody both in or outside of a detention facility.
Additionally, failure to recognize anaphylaxis and to seek prompt, appropriate treatment tends to upset everyone who has more stripes or stars than you do, elected officials, and family members as well. This is truly an ounce of prevention and quick action scenario.
What are the symptoms of an anaphylactic reaction?
The major difference between anaphylaxis and other allergic reactions is that anaphylaxis typically involves more than one system of the body.
Red rash (usually itchy and may have welts/hives)
Swollen throat or swollen areas of the body
Wheezing
Loss of consciousness
Chest tightness
Trouble breathing
Hoarse voice
Trouble swallowing
Vomiting
Diarrhea
Stomach cramping
Pale or red color to the face and body
It is important to remember that, like other allergic reactions, an anaphylactic reaction does not usually occur after the first exposure to an allergen but after a subsequent exposure. You may have an allergic reaction to a bee sting, but the next sting could lead to anaphylaxis.
First Aid Course Canberra. Providing asthma and anaphylaxis training in Canberra. First aid course with free parking, free certificate, free CPR face mask and free first aid manual. Book now to complete your first aid course Canberra with us at Canberra First Aid.
An aged care executive is calling on the sector to remove latex from workplaces and be more allergen aware, particularly in kitchens, as part of efforts to raise awareness about dangerous allergic reactions.Ananda Aged Care clinical director Dr Pooja Newman founded Global Anaphylaxis Awareness and Inclusivity (Globalaai) last month, four days after she experienced a near-fatal allergic reaction.
Dr Newman was attending a concert in Adelaide when balloons covered in latex powder were unexpectedly released.
Her campaign, which has already gained thousands of supporters globally, aims to help reduce the stigma of anaphylaxis – a severe and potentially life threatening allergic reaction – and increase safety for those at risk.
Globalaai is calling for:
widespread availability of emergency adrenaline – EpiPens – in public venues and food outlets
mandatory training for the hospitality industry
social awareness and
latex-free services in healthcare, retail and public venues.
Pooja Newman
Dr Newman, a medical doctor and the deputy chair of South Australia’s Aged Care Industry Association, wants to create change in aged care and is aiming to introduce a practical template for allergy safety in facilities.
“Ask the questions around anaphylaxis and identify at-risk individuals, support them and be inclusive,” Dr Newman told Australian Ageing Agenda.
“I am lobbying to remove latex in aged care and be allergen aware particularly in kitchens.”
Allergic diseases are among the fastest growing chronic conditions in Australia, affecting one in five Australians while deaths from anaphylaxis have increased by 7 per cent per year for the last seven years, according to the National Allergy Strategy.
Dr Newman, who has survived 30 anaphylactic episodes, is severely allergic to peanuts, all tree nuts and latex including latex associated fruits such as bananas.
“This has been the most severe anaphylaxis I have had and it has taken me longer than usual to recover from feeling weak, a little breathless and flat,” she said.
The release of the balloons covered in latex-powder – done without pre-concert caution that only mentioned strobe lights, pyrotechnics and confetti – was followed by the injection of three EpiPens and four days in intensive care.
Dr Newman is seeking global awareness so people with allergies can be better informed about the risks they may face.
Risks in aged care
Latex, for example, was the cause of occupational latex allergy, which had mild symptoms including a rash, asthma and very rarely anaphylaxis, Dr Newman said.
“We know that latex allergy occurs from exposure to latex and if it is minimised in aged care then latex anaphylaxis could potentially become a problem of the past.”
She said Ananda has been latex free since its inception and that latex-free products including gloves made of vinyl or nitrile were freely available and cost neutral.
Poor awareness and education among aged care staff, cognitive decline among clients and the stigma attached to anaphylaxis were among other key issues for the aged care and retirement living sectors, said Dr Newman.
She is currently discussing her campaign with aged care peak bodies.
Kitchens, particularly in aged care, are not suitably trained for anaphylaxis food safety and cross contamination is an issue that urgently needs to be addressed, Dr Newman argued.
“Older Australians with cognitive decline may not be in a position to advocate for the safety of themselves in terms of identifying their allergies appropriately.
“I see staff in workplaces currently not necessarily declaring life threatening allergies and potentially having their EpiPen in their bag in their locker and having the potential for a life threatening reaction in their workplace,” she said.
Dr Newman said workplaces did not have general use EpiPens, which saved lives as seconds counted from the commencement of an anaphylactic reaction to reversing the process and preventing morbidity and mortality associated with anaphylaxis.
“Aged care facilities in particular often have contractors and visitors including friends and family of residents and these people potentially are at risk from anaphylaxis if staff are not adequately trained to recognise and treat anaphylaxis.”
First aid course Canberra. We are helping provide this information to our participants so that they are aware of the suffering due to allergies and especially asthma and anaphylaxis. Book in to one of our first aid course in Canberra so that we can help train you.
Most people have no idea how to spot if someone is having a severe allergic reaction or how to help them despite Australia having one of the highest rates of food allergies in the developed world, research shows.
Four out of five adults do not know the signs of a severe allergic reaction to food and 70 per cent do not know how to help them or use a potentially life-saving adrenaline autoinjector or EpiPen.
Only four per cent of those surveyed by Galaxy Research knew you could be allergic to any food and half did not know you can develop an allergy to a food you have eaten before without a reaction.
The study showed most Australians are aware of common food allergies to peanuts, shellfish and seafood, but few people realise other triggers like bananas, kiwifruit and celery could also lead to potentially fatal allergic reactions.
The research revealed an extremely dangerous combination of lack of awareness and complacency, said Allergy & Anaphylaxis Australia CEO Maria Said.
“We all need to be allergy aware – how to use an adrenaline auto-injector must become common first aid knowledge, just like CPR,” she said.
It is estimated more than 650,000 Australians have a diagnosed food allergy and there are about 30,000 new cases every year, Allergy & Anaphylaxis said on Sunday to mark the start of food allergy week.
First Aid Training done right with Canberra First Aid. We offer great first aid training courses in CPR, asthma and anaphylaxis.
Our first aid training courses are run at the Paklands Hotel in Dickson which offers excellent accommodation options and is 200 metres from the Dickson shopping precinct.
The prime minister announces plans to teach children more about mental wellbeing
Theresa May has announced measures to provide every school with mental health first aid training and to teach children more about mental wellbeing.
The prime minister also wants to provide each school with a single point of contact with mental health services, and to include more in the curriculum about mental wellbeing, particularly in relation to keeping safe online and cyber bullying.
The plans are part of a wider package of reforms that would tear up the Mental Health Act and replace it with new legislation aimed largely at reducing the number of vulnerable people detained in prison cells.
Mrs May said: “We are going to roll out mental health support to every school in the country, ensure that mental health is taken far more seriously in the workplace, and raise standards of care with 10,000 more mental health professionals working in the NHS by 2020.
“These reforms are a vital part of my plan to build a fairer society for all, not just the privileged few, and they demonstrate the positive difference that strong and stable leadership makes.”
‘Empty rhetoric’
But Liberal Democrat former health minister Norman Lamb dismissed the promises as “empty rhetoric”.
Mr Lamb told the Press Association: “I’m sick and tired of great rhetoric from this government about their commitment to mental health but the reality for families across our country is just so very different,”
“Let’s just make them make the investment that they committed to in 2015 in our children’s mental health services.”
The Tories have made it clear that they are not prepared to invest any more from additional taxation, he added.
Speaking this morning on the BBC’s Andrew Marr show, health secretary Jeremy Hunt said the proposals would prevent children with mental health problems “ending up in police cells”.
He said: “There is a lot of new money coming in to it – £1 billion.” This amount was announced in January. Asked whether it was new money, Mr Hunt stated: “It’s new money going into the NHS that’s going into mental health.”
Still some improvement needed in the allergy world and product packaging but we have come a long way. Anaphylaxis is one of the most prevalent problems in child cares and thus is discussed in detail in first aid courses now all over the world.
Join a first aid course in Canberra with Canberra First Aid a reputable company with great feedback from previous participants. Check out the comments on google at https://www.google.com.au/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&rlz=1C1RUCY_enAU687AU687&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=canberra+first+aid&duf3=2,duf3-2-30-0x6b16529be178171d:0x8c0f3d672ecf2db7
In a first aid course with us you will learn so much about the signs and symptoms of anaphylaxis, how to treat it and the use of an epipen.
Australians with food allergies are at risk when deciding whether packaged products are safe to eat because manufacturers are unprepared to indicate which unlabelled foods are safe and which are not, a study has found.
The Murdoch Childrens Research Institute surveyed the allergen risk assessment processes of companies representing 454 different manufacturing sites across Australasia.
Peanut allergy treatment on horizon
Australian researchers say a successful trial treatment containing peanut protein and probiotics has laid the groundwork for an experimental peanut allergy vaccine.
It found 30 per cent of edible packaged goods on supermarket shelves had been declared safe to eat after a risk assessment for food allergens but still remained unlabelled, while products that had not undergone any assessment were also without a label.
Food assessed in the survey included cereals, breads, pastas, tinned food, biscuits and lollies.
Thirty per cent of packaged food products that have been through an allergen risk assessment process are safe to eat but remain unlabelled. Photo: Jim Rice
Senior author Professor Katie Allen suggested food labelling could be expanded to include “permissive labelling” to inform consumers whether a product was safe to eat.
“This would enable consumers to understand which foods have been through a risk assessment process and which have not,” she said. “Currently allergy consumers are taking significant risks. This situation is just an accident waiting to happen.”
About one in 20 children and two in 100 adults suffer from a food allergy. The most common ingredients that account for more than 90 per cent of food allergies are referred to as the “Big Eight”, and include milk, eggs, wheat, soy, peanuts, tree nuts, fish and crustacean shellfish.
In Australia two types of labelling are used by manufacturers: mandatory labelling, which is required by law, for any ingredient that is added to a product; and precautionary labelling, which is used by industry and manufacturers to inform consumers if a product may have traces of a certain substance.
Peanuts are one of the most common food allergens. Photo: Patrick Sison
Professor Allen argued such labels, indicating an edible product may contain traces of a food allergen, are being overused and “slapped on all sorts of products”. She said there was an urgent need for allergen labelling standardisation.
“It’s become ubiquitous … industry is keen to keen to inform consumers, but they take a ‘zero risk’ approach, that is, if in doubt, put on a label,” Professor Allen said.
About one in 20 children suffer from a food allergy.
In a previous study of supermarket snack products, Professor Allen found 95 per cent of products had some from of precautionary labelling.
“Of around 250 products labels saying ‘may contain traces of’ … we found three had very, very low levels of contamination that would be unlikely to cause reaction,” she said. “The rest had nothing. So we know there is overuse.”
She recommended an Australia-wide uptake of Voluntary Incidental Trace Allergen Labelling, a risk assessment program that estimates the risk of cross-contamination in a factory.
Developed by food manufacturers, industry and allergy groups, VITAL measures the concentration of an allergen in a product. If the concentration is above a certain level a “may be present” warning should be displayed.
However the research paper found a limitation of the VITAL process; products with concentrations below the level, which were “considered to be safe for consumption by food allergic consumers”, had no information on their labels that alerted consumers to this difference.
“Therefore, it is unclear whether these products contain trivial amounts of allergens and are safe to consume or whether they have simply not undergone a risk assessment and remain untested and therefore unlabelled,” the report said.
Professor Allen and her colleagues will reconvene alater this year with food industry representatives to endorse a national uptake of VITAL.
A spokesman for the Australian Food and Grocery Council said it was no surprise some member companies took a conservative approach.
“Health is first and foremost, and the massive consequences of getting it wrong are too great,” he said.
VITAL continued to evolve and was considered best practice for industry around the world, the spokesman added.
