There is no current peanut allergy cure, but there are numerous studies under way looking for a peanut allergy cure. Research was recently presented at the American Academy of Asthma, Allergy and Immunology regarding a peanut allergy cure. Researchers at Mt. Sinai hospital led by Dr. Hugh Sampson looked into placing a patch of peanut allergen on study participants for a year and seeing whether or not they are able to consume peanuts after the study was over. There were three study groups who were assigned 50, 100 and and 250 micrograms of peanut in their patches. Those assigned the highest amount, 50% of them were able to consume 1 gram of peanut protein. This worked for both adults and children in the study. The major side effect was redness and itching at the site of the patch, 2 study participants dropped out because of eczema flare ups.
Currently there are other studies underway looking for a peanut allergy cure as well. Many researchers are looking into oral administered desensitization techniques as well. This is usually performed in a hospital setting and it entails orally administering gradual amounts of peanut allergy protein over a one or two day period. Although these studies have been successful, there are inherent risks of triggering anaphylaxis reactions.
There are approximately 15 million Americans with food allergies and 1 in 13 children have been reported as well. The major foods listed are peanuts, nut, shellfish, fish, wheat, milk, soy and eggs.
The rate of food allergies have been on the rise for a number of years and researchers are still trying to discover what has led to the cause of this rise. Having a food allergy can be potentially fatal with a risk of anaphylaxis. This leads to a lot of stress and worry from both the children and parents. Hopefully a peanut allergy cure will be commercially available in the near future.