|
|
Article: Treatment may be on way for peanut allergies: ; Preliminary results show giving kids tiny amounts over time decreases allergy
- Article from:
- Charleston Daily Mail
- Article date:
- March 16, 2009
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2009 Charleston Daily Mail. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
|
WASHINGTON - 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.
Don't try this at home. 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.
Are the five cured? Doctors at Duke ...