WEST Midlands Euro MP Liz Lynne has expressed her concern over new figures showing the number of people being admitted to hospital due to anaphylactic shock has doubled in the past decade to 3,385 each year.

The data also found that the number of people being killed due to anaphylactic shock, which is most frequently caused by severe food allergies but can also be caused by other factors such as bee or wasp stings, has tripled to 24 each year leaving many unanswered questions about the reasons for this sudden rise.

In 2005, the EU created a 14.35 million euro scheme programme called EuroPREVALL to examine the causes of food allergies and to look into ways of lessening the impact of allergies. The project involves scientists from 17 member states and is being led by researchers in the UK.

Currently, an estimated 10 million people within the EU suffer from food allergies and there is no known cure.

Speaking today, Liz said it was important that the EU continued to support research into food allergies but also looked to expand the work to include people at risk of anaphylactic shock due to other factors.

“It is vital we continue to look into the root causes of anaphylactic shocks and hopefully, some day, into developing a cure for those people who are at risk," she said.

“The rapid increase in cases in the UK is a very worrying trend and shows that this is a developing problem that we need to ensure we guard against. “The EU has already put money towards looking into food allergies and I believe it is important we continue to support this research and to widen its scope to include everyone at risk of anaphylactic shocks from other sources such as bee or wasp stings.”