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TRANSCRIPT
Bec Gillespie lives with constant fear.
The social worker from the ACT is the mother to two twin girls, Abigail and Eloise, born in 2022.
In 2023, Abigail experienced an extreme anaphylaxis reactions to egg, while dining at a restaurant during the family's first interstate holiday.
"And since then, it's kind of impacted every part of our daily life, one bit of the wrong food, one mistake, and your child's life can be at risk within minutes. So as a parent, you really do kind of carry that fear everywhere that you go."
Her sister Eloise has also experienced minor reactions to food, and investigations show Abigail - who suffered a second anaphylactic reaction just months after the first - may also be allergic to shellfish and cashews.
Bec says managing her daughter's allergy takes a huge emotional and practical toll.
"It's pretty busy. I mean, it impacts your day to day life. You have to read every single label, you have to ask all the questions, you've got to remember, to carry adrenaline everywhere that you go, even the simple things, like going out for dinner, birthday parties, traveling takes a lot of careful and considered planning. I've even been quite anxious with them going to childcare and even leaving them with family, because we have to rely a lot on others being educated and prepared as well."
A new study by Deloitte Access Economics has found nearly one in three Australians live with allergy.
That figure has doubled in the in the past 18 years - from 4.1 million in 2007 to 8.2 million.
Professor Kirsten Perrett is the Director of the National Allergy Centre of Excellence and a paediatrician at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute.
She says the causes of this dramatic rise are multi-faceted.
"So we know that genes and our genetic makeup are a factor, but it's the environment that has changed so significantly. So, we've got pollen changes, we've got pollution changes. We've got lots of irritants and chemicals in the in the community, in the environment. But I think what we're also seeing is that modern lifestyle, so the sanitisation, the use of antibiotics, and we really are changing how we live in the in the modern world, and that's what we've seen as a result, is the rapid rise in allergic disease over the last 30 to 40 years."
New research into some 17,000 households, by the National Allergy Centre of Excellence, found the ACT has the highest rates of allergy in Australia.
Hay fever affects around 24 per cent of Australians, food allergy around seven per cent and allergy to drugs around five per cent.
"Australia is known as the allergy capital of the world, and that is no title that any country would like to hold, but that's been particularly based on food allergy rates, where we do have the highest rates of food allergy in childhood anywhere globally, and that prevalence is about 10 per cent of all infants have food allergy in Australia."
The new report by Deloitte also puts a figure on the cost to allergy sufferers and their families, finding the price tag of managing the condition to be at least $2,400 a person and $18.9 billion nationally.
This includes healthcare costs and productivity loss.
But the modelling also finds the non-financial costs - that measure pain and suffering, well-being and quality of life - are much higher at around $44 billion.
National Allergy Council Director and Allergy & Anaphylaxis Australia CEO Maria Said says the report’s findings were not surprising, given the unprecedented demand for allergy services.
"The demands for our services, the need for more information, the challenges that people have - it's an increase in hospitalisations, an increase in reactions, an increase in people trying to manage allergic rhinitis, people with insect allergy and so forth. The number of people reaching out and the demand for improved care and access to care is very real."
For Bec Gillespie, navigating the healthcare system and finding support was tricky.
She says she was disappointed with an initial lack of guidance from hospitals, GPs and paediatricians.
"The allergic reactions weren't really taken as seriously as I had hoped from the beginning, and we've only, just this year, when they're three years old, looking into the further allergy challenges, and seeing an allergy specialist, immunologist and things like that. But there are so very few specialists in Canberra, so the wait lists are long. And yeah, it is quite expensive as well."
Advocates says this latest report proves a need for greater investment in research and services to treat and prevent rising rates of allergy in Australia.
"Allergic disease has not been given the attention that it deserves. And this report shows that allergic disease is a hugely significant problem for Australians, affecting one in three Australians, that's almost every household. And I think that this report shows that more attention is required, and certainly sustained investment in the National Allergy Council and the National Allergy Centre of Excellence to help prevent allergies, help improve the safety of those with allergic disease, to accelerate research and deliver better care. That's what we really need."
