"A medically supervised daily dose of peanuts may help children with peanut allergies greatly increase their tolerance to the food, according to two new studies that raise the possibility of a cure for this potentially life-threatening condition.
The findings, presented on Sunday at a meeting of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology in Washington, suggest that a treatment for peanut allergy may be developed in two or three years, said Dr. Wesley Burks, the chief of the division of pediatric allergy and immunology at Duke University Medical Center, who helped conduct the research." From NY Times article, March 16, 2009 -- see Full Article.
This is an interesting article, but is really "old wine in new bottles." Sulzberger experimented with oral desensitization over 50 years ago. It is likely that American Indians have done this for hundreds if not thousands of years (see Wayne Winterrowd's fine piece: "The Baleful Weed.") There is a fascination with Peanut Allergy. It is far rarer than one thinks but has a strangely compelling aura. See Extraordinary Nutty Delusions.
Here is the abstract of a recent review of oral desensitization from PubMed:
Beyer K, Wahn U. Oral immunotherapy for food allergy in children. Curr Opin Allergy Clin Immunol. 2008 Dec;8(6):553-6.
Children's Hospital Charité, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany.
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PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Food allergy is a common disease in childhood. Natural tolerance development is frequent, but some children with cow's milk or hen's egg allergy and the majority of children with peanut allergy will remain allergic until adulthood. Within the last several years, the usefulness of oral immunotherapy has been investigated in food allergic patients. This review covers the most recent findings. RECENT FINDINGS: In cow's milk and hen's egg allergy, controlled trials have been conducted in children, showing that oral immunotherapy, in general, has been successful and safe. Moreover, rush protocols have been developed allowing desensitization in a short period of time. Although side effects are frequent, allergic reactions seem to be controllable by antihistamines, steroids, or epinephrine. For peanut allergy, the first results look promising and detailed data will be available shortly. SUMMARY: Several studies have shown that oral immunotherapy is a promising approach, especially in patients with severe and persistent food allergy. Side effects are frequent but seem controllable. So far, treatment protocols have been performed in highly supervised research settings. Until more experience is gained from larger long-term studies, oral immunotherapy should not be tried in clinical practice settings.