Posted Mar 21, 2009
SCIENTISTS say they are “optimistic? they have discovered a cure for life-threatening peanut allergies after a pilot study on children with the condition.
A group of youngsters began building up a tolerance to the nuts after they were given tiny amounts of the food over several years. Immunesystem tests later showed that five of the youngsters had no sign of allergy remaining and other children can withstand amounts that would once have left them wheezing or worse.
Doctors at Duke University Medical Centre and Arkansas Children’s Hospital said it was a world first and they now plan to continue tracking the youngsters to ensure that the “cure? is permanent.
“We’re optimistic that they have lost their peanut allergy, ? said the lead researcher, Dr Wesley Burks of Duke University. “We’ve not seen this before medically. We’ll have to see what happens to them. ” Research suggests around one in 70 children across the UK are allergic to peanuts, according to the Anaphylaxis Campaign. Sufferers can have severe reactions after coming into contact with even traces of nuts and although some children outgrow the allergy, many of the most severely affected continue to suffer from the condition.
Ross Baillie, a 21-year-old hurdler died in June 1999 after suffering a severe reaction to a coronation chicken sandwich which contained traces of nuts.
In the new trial, 29 severely allergic children spent a day in the hospital swallowing minuscule but increasing doses of a specially-prepared peanut flour, until they had a reaction. The child went home with a daily dose just under the reactive amount, usually one-thousandth of a peanut.
Nine children who had taken daily therapy for two and a half years were given a series of peanut challenges. Four in the initial study report – and a fifth who finished testing last week – could stop treatment and avoid peanuts for a month and still have no reaction the next time they ate 15 peanuts. Immune-system changes suggest they are truly allergy-free.
Rhonda Cassada’s son Ryan took part in the study and has now been allergy-free for two years. “It’s such a burden lifted off your shoulder to realise you don’t have to worry about your child eating a peanut and ending up really sick, ” said Mrs Cassada, of Hillsborough, North Carolina.
The first five allergy-free children will eat a tablespoon of peanut butter every day to keep their bodies used to the allergen and researchers will continue to monitor the youngsters’ tolerance of the nuts.
Date: Mar 18, 2009
