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Allergic to food: Carry two EpiPens

BOSTON, March 26 (UPI) -- U.S. researchers suggest children with food allergies should carry two doses of emergency medicine.

Researchers at Children's Hospital Boston and Massachusetts General Hospital conducted a six-year review of emergency department data. They found among children treated with emergency medicine, 12 percent needed more than one dose of the emergency medicine used -- epinephrine, known as EpiPen -- because of a resurgence of symptoms -- either before or after being taken to the emergency department.

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"Until we're able to clearly define the risk factors for the most severe reactions, the safest thing may be to have all children at risk for food-related anaphylaxis carry two doses of epinephrine," first author Dr. Susan Rudder says in a statement.

To offset costs, Rudders suggests, school nurses carry un-assigned extra doses of injectable epinephrine for the children who need them.

The study, published in Pediatrics, included a review of the charts of 1,255 children younger than age 18 seen in two Boston emergency departments from 2001-2006 for food-related allergic reactions. The researchers found more than half had the most severe, possibly life-threatening, reaction called anaphylaxis.

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