GED KEARNEY MP
ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGED CARE
MEMBER FOR COOPER
Australians living with allergies will have their conditions better diagnosed, managed and prevented under new funding by the Albanese Government. The funding will mean fewer people will get ill, be hospitalised, or die because of allergies.
The Labor Government is providing a funding package of almost $27 million to establish a National Allergy Centre of Excellence and a National Allergy Council to address allergic disease and anaphylaxis in Australia.
This package includes $16.6 million to establish the National Allergy Council to support the National Allergy Strategy. The Council will be focussing on preventing allergies and supporting patients to manage their allergies. The council will progress a patient-centred, ‘shared care model’ aimed at ensuring patients receive the right care, at the right time, from the right health professionals, in the right place.
The funding package also includes $10.2 million, that will go to the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute to establish the allergy centre by expanding its Centre for Food and Allergies Research to centralise research on food, drug, vaccine, insect, and pollen allergies. The centre will bring the best researchers together to analyse evidence for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment/management of allergies.
In addition to this funding package, the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute is also set to receive $2.5 million in funding through the National Health and Medical Research Council’s (NHMRC) Centres of Research Excellence (CRE) scheme. The CRE – Towards eradicating food allergy: from population to precision prevention, early intervention and management – will build capacity and capability in this critical area of research.
Australia is known as the allergy capital of the world. Hay fever and allergies affect 4.6 million Australians or around 19.3% of the population.
Chronic sinusitis affects a further 2 million people, or 8.4% of the population.
Drug allergies are reported by 4.7% of the population, while food allergies affect about 10% of infants, 4-8% of children and 2% of adults in Australia and New Zealand.
Quotes attributable to Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care Ged Kearney:
“Serious allergies impact the lives of individuals and families in a massive way. Whether it’s a baby with an allergy to milk, to schoolkids who must avoid peanut butter at risk of anaphylaxis.”
“Allergies are deadly serious. That’s why we are investing $26.9 million to launch the National Allergy Council and the National Allergy Centre of Excellence.”
“This funding will save lives. It will improve measures to prevent allergies, and their diagnosis and treatment. It will also reduce serious illnesses, hospitalisation and deaths from allergies.”
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