Peanuts are one of the deadliest foods for allergy sufferers. Even tiny amounts can cause anaphylactic shock, which is usually life-threatening. In this situation, the only way to counteract the allergic shock is to provide immediate help with emergency medication. While adults understand the medical condition and know how to behave in an emergency, small children are in great danger. In the USA, a team of researchers is therefore developing a preventive therapy to desensitize children. For the first time, medications to prevent peanut allergy are being tested. And the results give hope to many parents with allergic children.
Peanut allergy: Will there soon be a drug to prevent it?
Last year, the drug AR101 entered the test phase. A study with 551 children between the ages of 4 and 17 demonstrated the effect of the preparation. After preventive therapy, the subjects were able to take 600 mgConsume peanuts safely. After the promising results, the research team sent the drug to the American Allergy Committee and received a commitment for further testing. If these also prove its effectiveness, the drug will be approved in the USA next year.
Peanut allergy: Can allergy-related deaths be prevented in the future?
People who have oneHave an allergy to these nuts, have to struggle with many difficulties in everyday life. They repeatedly have to explain in the restaurant that they have a life-threatening allergy and read the food packaging carefully in the supermarket. One look is enough to see that many foods and ready meals can contain traces of peanuts. Parents of small children have to rely on the kindergarten teachers and also have to keep informing their friends that the child has a severe allergy.
Nevertheless, allergy-related deaths still occur. For example, if peanuts are not listed as an ingredient on the package. Prevention will make the lives of allergy sufferers worldwide much easier. Desensitization should not be confused with healing therapy. People with allergies will still not be able to eat peanuts; their reaction to them will simply be milder.
To the first oneStudy by the American research team
