At a meeting of the American Academy of Asthma and Immunology this past week, Dr. Kenneth Backman of Allergy and Asthma Care of Fairfield County heard a ground-breaking report on a promising new potential therapy for those suffering from allergies to peanut products. A brief report March 15 by the AP is below.
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. Doctors monitored the youngsters closely in case they needed rescue, and there’s no way to dice a peanut as small as the treatment doses required. But over several years, the children’s 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, scientists reported Sunday. More rigorous research is under way to confirm the pilot study, released 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.
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