New Epinephrine Auto-Injector Available.

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Managing children with food allergies can be very difficult, since some of these children are sensitive to remarkably small amounts of a particular food. For example, children with serious peanut allergy have to be careful (of course) to avoid foods like peanuts and peanut butter, but they also have to avoid tiny traces of peanut that might find their way into foods that don't list "peanut" as an ingredient (often, contamination occurs when such a food is manufactured at a plant that also makes peanut-containing foods).

In the event that a child does develop an allergic reaction to a food, the reaction can be life-threatening, and the most effective first-aid measure is to give an injection of epinephrine ("adrenaline"). For years, children with serious food allergies have been encouraged to always have available a device, called an "auto-injector", that can be easily used by non-medical personnel to give a potentially life-saving dose of epinephrine. The most popular products are called Epi-Pen and Epi-Pen Jr. One limitation of these devices is that they only contain one shot of the drug.

Now, a new device, called the Twinject, provides two doses of epinephrine. The first is delivered by an auto-injector; a second dose can be given out of the same device by a prefilled injection. Like the EpiPen, Twinject requires a prescription and will be available in regular and junior strength doses. Physicians can prescribe a Two Pack that includes a Twinject trainer (for practice); a training video is also available. More information is available from the manufacturer at wwww.twinject.com. (Food Allergy News, September, 2005)

COMMENT: This report appeared in Food Allergy News, which is published by the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network (FAAN), a remarkably helpful, objective, and credible organization devoted to improving the lives of those afflicted with food allergies. FAAN makes Twinject trainers and training videos available; to order, visit their website (www.foodallergy.org). We encourage parents of children with food allergies--and others who care for such children--to become familiar with FAAN.