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Services Provided By Allergy and Immunology

The Department is committed to improving the lives of children with allergy and immune disorders.  To do this, we focus on four main roles:

• Medical Services
• Research
• Training and Education
• Health Policy

Medical Services

The Department provides outpatient and inpatient care to children with allergic and immune disorders in Victoria and Tasmania.

Patients are triaged based upon the clinical problem and may be prioritised into a specialised clinic (e.g. baby clinic, anaphylaxis and immune deficiency clinic) or booked into a general allergy clinic.

Allergy diagnosis is made on the basis of a detailed history, including a family history of allergy, details of any reactions to foods, any history of asthma, eczema, colic or hay fever, birth history and record of growth and dietary history.

Tests, such as skin prick tests or blood tests and challenge tests may be recommended.

Skin prick testing

Skin prick tests are when a small amount of allergen extract (in the form of a liquid) is pricked into the skin. An allergic reaction appears as a lump (weal) at the scratch site. An allergy specialist must read the result, as the test needs to be interpreted carefully. A skin prick test takes about 30 minutes.

The test can be performed on babies, but a baby less than 12 months of age has less reactive skin and so the results may be lessened. Registered nurses, who have undergone extensive training in the procedure perform skin tests and, the result is interpreted by medical specialists with experience in allergy diagnosis and management.

Challenges

This is a highly specialized test that is performed by experienced allergy specialists and nursing staff in a safe clinical environment.  The test takes approximately half a day and involves giving a child increasing amounts of an allergen (e.g. food or drug) the child is observed closely after each dose for any clinical allergic response.

Only one food is challenged at a time, and if tolerated, families are given a plan and instructions on how to continue at home.

Thousands of families have learnt through challenges what foods their child can safety to introduce back into their diet.  Challenges empower families and children to take control of their lives.

Challenges are associated with a risk of severe allergic reaction and should only be preformed by Allergy Specialists experienced in the administration of a challenge and in a setting where resuscitation facilities are available.

Desensitisation/Immunotherapy

Desensitisation programs (immunotherapy) are available for insect (usually bee) venom, house dust mite, pollens and other inhalant allergens (eg. cat dander). It involves a series of injections that build up to a maintenance dose given over several months (in the case of standard immunotherapy) or over two days (in the case of ultra rush immunotherapy for bee venom). The maintenance dose is then continued monthly for 3-5 years.The Department Allergist recommends immunotherapy based on skin prick tests, pathology results and the child's history.

Current Research Projects

The Department is involved in a number of exciting research projects that include:

• Mechanisms of airway remodeling in asthma
• Prenatal probiotics for the prevention of eczema
• The Health Nuts Study - Population prevalence and environmental/genetic predictors of food allergy in an infant cohort
• Specific antibody deficiency (SAD)
• Immune responses to Pneumococcal Vaccination
• The MACS longitudinal follow up study - Allergies that impact on children getting a healthy start to life: A prospective study.
• Oral immunotherapy for the treatment of peanut allergy
  
  Click here below for links to research projects

Allergy & Immune Disorders

Gut and Liver

Training and Education

Health Professionals

The Allergy and Immunology Department is committed to promoting and advancing training of specialists in paediatric allergic disorders to improve community access to allergy care.

There are four different levels of training:

• Primary level training
  • To provide general practitioners and general paediatricians with increased knowledge of allergic disease and immunology to care for non-complex allergic disorders
• Secondary level training
  • To provide generalist paediatricians and organ based specialists with increased knowledge and skills to diagnosis, treat and manage less complex problems in the community.

This training aims to develop paediatricians with a special interest in allergy and will equip them with the experience and skills needed to deliver primary and secondary paediatric allergy services within their practice communities.

This training can be undertaken over either 12 months full time or 24 months part time.

• Tertiary level training
  • RACP accredited training programs for specialists in allergy and immunology to diagnosis, manage and treat complex paediatric allergic disorders.
• Clinical Nurse Consultants 
  • To provide nurses with increased skills and knowledge to provide a clinical consultancy service. This includes clinical support and advice, education and research.

The breadth of the Department's training program will help to improve access to paediatric allergy services for children in Victoria.

Community Education and Training in Allergic disease and anaphylaxis

The department has a dynamic training team that have been delivering education and training for over 10 years to the community.  Our aim is to provide research based training that is relevant and practical for individuals and workplaces to improve general community knowledge of allergic and immune disorders, and their effective prevention and treatment.
All of our training is provided by experienced allergy staff that also hold Certificate IV in Training and Assessment.  We currently deliver training and education sessions to the following sectors:

• School communities
• Kindergarten sector
• Child Care Services
• Health Professionals

For more information on our training please click on here: Community Education

Health Policy

One of the key roles of the department is to influence health policy for the State of Victoria. The Department advocates for a concerted and comprehensive approach to the prevention and management of allergic and immune disorders. We aim to support the Government create policy based on comprehensive and up to date evidence based research and information.

This is achieved through key strategies:

• Involvement with various Government Departments
• Participation on various working party groups to develop policy
• Presentation of papers at conferences both nationally and internationally
• Leaders in cutting edge research
• Publishing articles
• Providing information to governments and philanthropic organisations to influence policy-making and funds allocation
• Professional affiliations with other health related organisations

We wish to facilitate the progression of allergy agenda forward and to support community awareness of allergic and immune disorders.