Peanut allergies tackled in largest ever trial (BBC)

[eppur_se_muova]

Doctors in Cambridge believe they may soon have a cure for peanut allergies.

The largest ever trial to find a treatment for potentially fatal peanut allergies is to give sufferers tiny amounts daily to build up tolerance.

The Addenbrookes team will give increasing doses of peanut flour to 104 British children, up to the equivalent of five nuts a day.

Twenty out of 23 sufferers in an earlier study became able to eat more than 30 peanuts safely.

The new £1m three-year trial could lead to a widely available treatment.
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more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8527530.stm

[Chemisse]

1. That is good news, but

Isn't that basically how allergy treatments work for other allergens?

If so, my response to this is, what's taken them so long?

[trotsky]

3. Because it's never been successful with a food allergy before.

I have to wonder, though, why you even care. If you were consistent you'd say that those suffering from food allergies will just have to take necessary precautions and deal with it. But I suppose since treating their allergy frees you from any sort of tiny sacrifice or forethought on your part, that makes it OK.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7899383.stm

The concept of desensitising people to allergies has been successfully done with bee and wasp stings and pollen allergies, but this is the first time it has been achieved with a food-related allergy.

A few trials were done in the 1990s using peanut injections, but these were not successful.

[peace13]

4. Food can be contaminated with nuts simply by being processed,

in a plant where nuts are used in other items. If you read the packaging on many foods you will see that there is a warning for those with nut allergies. You may notice signs in bakeries warning that items without nuts may have come in contact with nuts. And then there is always the case of people putting peanut butter in chili! Who would expect nuts in chili? Or the woman who died from a kiss because her friend had eaten peanuts prior to the kiss. Or a child who is playing at a friend's house and eats a peanut butter sandwich because his friend's family forgot he was allergic to peanuts. So you see it is a bit more than freeing one from a tiny sacrifice. It is more like preparing yourself to survive an accidental poisoning.

[trotsky]

5. You're preaching to the choir with me.

It's the poster I was responding to that objects to the liberal idea of shared risk, shared reward.

[peace13]

6. Sorry, wrong spot. n/t

[Chemisse]

8. I think they debunked the kiss death.

Still, it is an amazingly dangerous allergy. It is very good news indeed if they can treat it successfully.

[Celebration]

2. Great news!

Nut allergies kill people, and severely limit the lives of others.

[goclark]

7. Oh Happy, Happy Day That Will Be!

:bounce:

I was a school Principal for many years.

In the early 90's the Peanut Allergies were getting to be a problem.

By the end of the 90's we had to go to " No Peanut Tables" in the Cafeteria and having children carrying Epi-Pins and Teacher Training for Reactions to Peanuts.

What I never could understand were the parents ( and it happened with several parents) that got angry because their child's class had a child violently allergic to Peanuts.

We composed a nice letter with the help of the parents and District Nurse asking the parnts in that class to be extremely careful when sending Birthday Treats etc. to the classroom.