The number of patients suffering from serious allergies has soared by 25 per cent in just four years, a report reveals. Eczema and asthma are the most common complaints although the largest recorded increase is in peanut allergies - which in rare cases can prove fatal.

In 2001, nearly one in five GP patients had at least one allergic disease. But by 2005, that figure had increased to nearly one in four.

GPs are not well informed about allergy at all, but particularly about food allergy and that is because they are not trained in it.

llergies are more commonly recorded among patients from affluent areas, suggesting that the environment in which babies are brought up could influence their future health.

The latest figures show the allergy problem is even more acute than previously thought. By 2005 an estimated 12.2million people had been diagnosed with allergies,