Abena Amoah wins JMA award

The title of my poster was Cross-reactive carbohydrate determinants in peanut allergy in Ghana: high peanut-specific IgE sensitisation without skin reactivity or reported symptoms". Briefly, her presentation was that although the prevalence of peanut allergy has increased in developed countries little is known about developing countries especially where there is high peanut consumption. The aim of the study was to investigate the prevalence of peanut allergy in Ghana among school children 5-16 years using different parameters and found elevated peanut specific IgE levels without peanut skin prick test reactivity or reported symptoms to peanut, which establish that this was primarily due to helminth-induced cross reactive carbohydrate determinants.

Although EAACI started out with a European focus, it now has more than 6800 members from 107 countries and 41 National Allergy Societies. The Annual Congress of EAACI is the largest meeting of basic scientists and clinicians working in the field of allergies and clinical immunology in Europe. The overall purpose is for the extensive and efficient communication of the science as well as novel developments in the field of allergy, asthma and immunology to the rest of the world. As part of the annual congress, a special poster session is held at the opening night of the congress for all Junior Members and Affiliates (JMA) to share their study findings.