A new treatment seeks to treat peanut-allergy sufferers by exposing them to the very thing that could harm them
FOOD ALLERGIES have plagued humans for thousands of years. In the fifth century BC Hippocrates noted that although some people could eat their fill of cheese “without the slightest hurt…others come off badly”. The difference, he observed, “lies in the constitution of the body”.
Nearly all foods are capable of triggering allergic reactions in humans, and today these are more prevalent than ever, for reasons that are poorly understood. In America, as many as one in 12 children is reckoned to have one. None is more feared than the peanut. Aby researchers at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota found that the number of emergency-room visits by American children suffering allergic reactions to nuts, seeds and other food has tripled in ten years .
This may be about to change. In September an expert advisory panel at America’s Food and Drug Administration voted to approve a new treatment for peanut allergies in children—the first of its kind. Called Palforzia, the drug seeks to treat peanut-allergy sufferers by exposing them to the very thing that could kill them. Getting the body used to the allergen, by consuming it first in tiny amounts and then in ever-larger portions, can help.
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