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Risky therapy may cream peanut allergy
Key Excerpts from Article on Website of MSNBC/Associated Press
Posted: March 28th, 2009
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29707036
Scientists have the first evidence that life-threatening peanut allergies may be cured one day. A few kids now are allergy-free thanks to a scary treatment tiny amounts of the very food that endangered them. Dont try this at home. Doctors monitored the youngsters closely in case they needed rescue, and theres no way to dice a peanut as small as the treatment doses required. But over several years, the childrens bodies learned to tolerate peanuts. Immune-system tests show no sign of remaining allergy in five youngsters, and others can withstand amounts that once would have left them wheezing or worse. Were optimistic that they have lost their peanut allergy, said the lead researcher, Dr. Wesley Burks, Dukes allergy chief. Rhonda Cassada['s] 7-year-old son, Ryan, has been labeled allergy-free for two years and counting. Its a big change for a child who couldnt tolerate one-sixth of a peanut when he entered the study at age 2 1/2. By 5, Ryan could eat a whopping 15 peanuts at a time with no sign of a reaction. More rigorous research is under way to confirm the pilot study, released Sunday at a meeting of the American Academy of Asthma and Immunology. If it pans out, the approach could mark a major advance for an allergy that afflicts 1.8 million people in the United States. Millions of people have food allergies and peanut allergy is considered the most dangerous, with life-threatening reactions possible from trace amounts. It accounts for most of the 30,000 emergency-room visits and up to 200 deaths attributed to food allergies each year. Although some children outgrow peanut allergy, thats rare among the severely affected. Theres no way to avoid a reaction other than avoiding peanuts.
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