Can allergies be life threatening?

Can allergies be life threatening?

Harold Kaiser (Practicing Allergist and Clinical Professor of Medicine, University of Minnesota Medical School) gives expert video advice on: What causes allergies?; What happens in my body when I have an allergic reaction?; Are allergies becoming more common? and more...

Penicillin allergy is a common form of drug allergy and there are deaths reported every year from reactions to penicillin. Peanut allergy gets a lot of publicity now and there are deaths from peanut allergy reported every year. Severe allergic reactions can be life threatening and there are deaths every year from anaphylactic reactions, which can be allergic or not allergic. But to answer the question, they are rarely life-threatening, but we take them seriously.