Allergic to peanuts? This Band-Aid could help
Over 80 percent of children between 6 and 11 in a recent trial were able to eat four-times as much peanuts after treatment with a special skin patch.
Salivating at your friend's PB&J but can't have a bite due to peanut allergies? You're not alone, but one company says it can help you -- with just a skin patch.
In new data released at Sunday's American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology conference, DBV Technologies reported that 83.3 percent of children aged 6 to 11 who participated in a three-year trial of its Viaskin Peanut patch could eat 1 or more grams of peanut protein (four peanuts or more) without suffering an allergic reaction.
That's a ten-fold improvement from what many subjects could tolerate before joining the trial. DBV Technologies conducted the trial on people aged 6 to 55, though treatment was most successful on younger subjects.
The company seeks to conduct the next phase of this trial by June. It also wants to develop a similar treatment for other allergies such as milk, eggs, tree nuts and shellfish.
Food allergies are one of the most prevalent problems in the US, with the Food Allergy Research & Education reporting an estimate of up to 15 million affected Americans and one in 13 children under the age of 18. Peanut allergies are ranked as being one of the most common. Food allergy reactions sees one person sent to the emergency room every three minutes and can be fatal.
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