Across Australia, childhood allergy rates seem to have hit "epidemic proportion", a development which has led health experts to step up their efforts to try and fight and curb the mysterious condition.

Dr. Ray Mullins, a Canberra-based allergy expert, shared that as many as 15,000 Australian children born within this year would go on to develop food allergies that could end up becoming potentially fatal, even before they have reached school age.

Food allergies, peanut and tree nut ones in particular, were always a rapidly growing problem with no known cause, and now they have hit worrying rates, affecting 3-6% of the children who are below the age of 3.

"This translates to 65,000 little kids with food allergy before they reach school age, (including) 25,000 now with peanut or tree nut allergies. On current birth rates, another 15,000 kids born every year will develop food allergy in the first few years of life. It's a public health problem of epidemic proportions", Dr. Mullins said.

To help people know more about food allergies and aid parents who have children with the condition, the Australian Society of Clinical Immunology and Allergy has launched an online food allergy training course. The free course can be accessed at allergy. org. au/etraining.