Mandatory vaccination of National Health Service staff against COVID-19: more harm than good?

Despite the clear benefits of vaccination against COVID-19, there was significant unease relating to the government policy of mandatory vaccination of health and care staff in England and the potential inequities this may lead to. Healthcare staff, and in particular doctors, speaking out on this issue may have inadvertently provided a narrative, which undermined the objective of achieving widespread vaccination of populations against this serious disease. The recent reversal of this policy may not mark the end of this debate amongst health and social care staff.

Perioperative anaphylaxis: diagnostic challenges and management.

Purpose Of Review: Perioperative hypersensitivity reactions can pose diagnostic and management challenges for the anaesthetist. Difficulties in diagnosing hypersensitivity reactions in the perioperative setting are highlighted and recommendations from recent guidelines on the acute management of life-threatening anaphylaxis are presented.

Recent Findings: Anaesthetists play a key role in investigating perioperative hypersensitivity reactions.

Drug provocation testing: risk stratification is key.

Purpose Of Review: This review aims to describe current best practice and recent advances in the use of risk stratification as a tool for drug provocation testing (DPT). In particular, we focus on the testing of unsubstantiated penicillin allergy labels.

Recent Findings: The inherent risks of DPT are mitigated through careful selection of patients.

Comparative epidemiology of suspected perioperative hypersensitivity reactions.

Suspected perioperative hypersensitivity reactions are rare but contribute significantly to the morbidity and mortality of surgical procedures. Recent publications have highlighted the differences between countries concerning the respective risk of different drugs, and changes in patterns of causal agents and the emergence of new allergens. This review summarises recent information on the epidemiology of perioperative hypersensitivity reactions, with specific consideration of differences between geographic areas for the most frequently involved offending agents.