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New Immunotherapy Trial Cures Kids of Peanut Allergy For Up To Four Years (theguardian.com)
Using a new kind of immunotherapy treatment, Australian researchers have managed to cure a majority of the children in their study suffering from a peanut allergy. "The desensitization to peanuts persisted for up to four years after treatment," reports The Guardian. From the report: Tang, an immunologist and allergist, pioneered a new form of treatment that combines a probiotic with peanut oral immunotherapy, known as PPOIT. Instead of avoiding the allergen, the treatment is designed to reprogram the immune system's response to peanuts and eventually develop a tolerance. It's thought that combining the probiotic with the immunotherapy gives the immune system the "nudge" it needs to do this, according to Tang. Forty-eight children were enrolled in the PPOIT trial and were randomly given either a combination of the probiotic Lactobacillus rhamnosus with peanut protein in increasing amounts, or a placebo, once daily for 18 months. At the end of the original trial in 2013, 82% of children who received the immunotherapy treatment were deemed tolerant to peanuts compared with just 4% in the placebo group. Four years later, the majority of the children who gained initial tolerance were still eating peanuts as part of their normal diet and 70% passed a further challenge test to confirm long-term tolerance. The results have been published in the Lancet Child & Adolescent Health.
Only suspended? You're lucky. In our school district, kids can be ARRESTED for possessing any kind of nut or peanut based food (remember peanuts are not nuts, they are legumes).
Reckless endangerment or something... it's ridiculous. Bad parents refuse to properly raise their kids, so they end up with nearly lethal allergies to common things, and the rest of us are the ones who get punished.
Fuck them.
The kids were given a skin prick test with peanut allergen before and after the treatments. Only the kids who no longer reacted to the allergen would have been told they could eat peanuts. Kids who still reacted would have been told they still had to avoid peanuts.
So yes, it's just you misunderstanding how clinical trials work.