The Spanish Association of People with Food and Latex Allergies (AEPNAA) has claimed this Wednesday that all autonomous communities should promote action frameworks in educational centers for severe allergic reactions, known as anaphylaxis, as it is a "life-threatening emergency" in which "every minute counts".
AEPNAA has reiterated this demand after the Balearic Government, coinciding with World Allergy Day, announced a joint instruction from the Ministries of Health and Education to establish a common response framework for severe allergic reactions in public non-university educational centers in the community.
The entity has applauded the decision, which it described as a "decisive step" towards "safe" schooling for students with food allergies and risk of anaphylaxis, and has stressed that it sets a "precedent of enormous relevance" for the rest of the country.
The instruction includes specific protocols for the prevention, detection, and treatment of anaphylactic episodes, specific training for teaching and non-teaching staff, unified action criteria, coordination between the health and educational sectors, legal certainty for those who must intervene in a life-threatening emergency, and availability of emergency medication, including adrenaline auto-injectors, in public educational centers.
AEPNAA has particularly highlighted that this framework is not limited to schools and institutes where there are already diagnosed students, but also provides for adrenaline auto-injectors in all public educational centers. They have emphasized that this provision is "essential," given that in some cases the first anaphylactic episode may occur in the school environment, before a previous diagnosis exists.
The president of AEPNAA, Ángel Sánchez, who participated in the presentation of the measure, pointed out that this common framework prevents student safety from depending exclusively on the good disposition of each center. "Today we take a step that families have been demanding for years," he highlighted.
A growing challenge for public health
Coinciding with World Allergy Day, AEPNAA has reiterated that food and latex allergies must be addressed with the utmost seriousness and has warned that anaphylaxis has become a growing challenge for public health, requiring urgent, coordinated, and homogeneous responses.
According to the Spanish Society of Allergology and Clinical Immunology (SEAIC), the lifetime prevalence of anaphylaxis could reach two percent of the population and the global healthcare burden of these severe reactions could exceed 14,000 cases per year.
The association has sent an institutional declaration to the regional parliaments with the intention of promoting greater social and institutional awareness about food allergy and anaphylaxis, in addition to moving towards common protection measures in the school environment.
For AEPNAA, it is a priority to reinforce the training and protection of center staff, establish clear prevention and action protocols, develop individualized plans for students with known risk, guarantee the presence of emergency medication, and ensure effective coordination between the healthcare and educational systems.