Lasting Impacts in 2024 | Kids With Food Allergies

Together, we’ve made incredible progress in improving the lives of people with asthma and allergies.

From advocating to prevent accidental deaths from food allergies, to backing groundbreaking research for new treatments. Our top accomplishments include:

ADVOCATING FOR ACCESS TO LIFE-SAVING FOOD ALLERGY MEDICINES

In 2024, KFA advocated for expanding access to life-saving allergy medicines. Additionally, we took bold steps to advance efforts to prevent accidental deaths from food allergies, protecting our loved ones, whether from daycare settings to airplane travel.

KFA supports:

• FAA Reauthorization – The new law started a process to review the contents of emergency medical kits (EMKs) on planes—specifically to ensure that EMKs contain medication to treat anaphylaxis.
• Elijah’s Law – This law will help ensure childcare centers take steps to manage food allergies for the children in their care and keep children with food allergies safe at their care facilities.
• Dillon’s Law – a bipartisan bill that incentivizes states to allow trained people to carry and give epinephrine in an emergency.

ELEVATING YOUR VOICE IN RESEARCH

We strengthened connections between patients and groundbreaking research opportunities, ensuring their voices and needs remain central to innovation. In 2024, KFA recruited participants for clinical trials, surveys, focus groups, and other studies led by academic researchers, federal agencies, and drugmakers. KFA also engaged caregivers of kids with food allergies as expert advisors to many of these researchers.

Through engaging our community with research, KFA developed a decision guide for oral immunotherapy (OIT) that people can use to talk to their allergists about OIT as a treatment option. This decision guide was published in medical journals and is now available to all doctors and people with food allergies.

HELPING YOU MANAGE FOOD ALLERGIES WITH CONFIDENCE

In 2024, KFA educated people managing food allergies by:

• Providing personalized support to help people manage asthma and allergies by providing resources and support to over 55,000 people on our two online support communities.
• Responding to 1,228 inquiries submitted to AAFA’s Support Center and 268 questions submitted to AAFA’s Ask the Allergist service.
• Serving as a trusted ally for the food allergy community by sharing the latest news and trends, such as emerging treatment options, new allergy-friendly foods, recipes, and recalls through KFA’s Strides newsletter and digital communication channels.
• Offering health education programs on food allergies and related conditions like asthma and eczema.
  • Over 6,000 people attended our educational programs for people who live with or manage allergic conditions.
  • Over 7,500 health care professionals attended our continuing education programs on treating allergic conditions.