THEand reactions of a child suffering from food allergywhen it comes into contact, even in a minimal dose, with the ingredient to which it is sensitive, they can go from hives to a feeling of suffocation and anaphylactic shock. The latter risks that many can now avoid taking thanks to a monoclonal antibody tested by a study from the Bambino Gesù hospital in Rome (published in the scientific journal Allergy).
The researchers followed 65 children and young people (between 6 and 18 years old) with asthma and one or more food allergies for a year. «After the therapy it turned out that more than six out of ten patients were able to tolerate significantly higher quantities of the allergenic food, such as milk, hazelnut, egg, peanut.
The rest of the sample drastically reduced the number of anaphylactic episodes: only eight compared to the 98 reported by the entire group in the 12 months preceding the treatment” explains Alessandro Fiocchi, head of allergology at Bambino Gesù and coordinator of the research.
Help is on the way to avoid allergic reactions related to food. (Getty Images)
To date, the drug is authorized in Europe only for the treatment of asthma. «For this reason – specifies the doctor – children who also suffered from allergic asthma were selected for the study. The US regulatory agency, however, has already approved the drug also to reduce the risk of allergic food reactions. To have broader confirmation, the Italian study will be repeated by comparing patients treated with the monoclonal antibody with a group administered the placebo.”
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