Doctors in Cambridge believe that they may soon have a cure for peanut allergies.
According to the BBC, the largest ever trial to find a treatment for potentially fatal peanut allergies is to give sufferers tiny amounts daily to build up their tolerance to the nut.
The trial team will give increasing doses of peanut flour to 104 British children, up to the equivalent of five nuts a day.
In an earlier study, twenty out of 23 allergy suffers became able to eat more than 30 peanuts safely. The new £1 million treatment could lead to a widely available treatment.
It is believed that about one in 50 young people in the UK suffers from peanut allergies which can cause breathing problems, itching and, in severe cases, a potentially fatal reaction called anaphylaxis.
The new trial will involve more than 100 young people aged between seven and 17 years of age. Each will be given daily doses of peanut flour, starting at about one milligram, added to yoghurt.
A year on from the start of the study showed that 20 patients involved in the trial could eat 32 peanuts safely- meaning that they no longer needed to screen food labels and be wary of what they eat.
If this trial is successful then the researchers believe a treatment could be available within two to three years. This will be great news for allergy sufferers who have to monitor their food intake meticulously. As it stands it is important that restaurants ensure that they detail to suffers any dishes which may contain peanuts but if successful this trial could do away with that necessity, meaning that the chances of a person with an allergy having a reaction, or more importantly a serious reaction, will be markedly reduced. In turn, this will reduce the number of claims for where products have been inappropriately labelled and caused injury as a result.
