'Miracle' allergy breakthrough as trial finds giving child sufferers small ... trends now
Children with severe allergies have seen 'life-transforming' results from early trials using foods to build up their immunity.
Five NHS hospitals have so far joined a £2.5million clinical trial which is testing if everyday food products – such as peanuts and milk – can be used as treatment.
Experts said that while not a cure for extreme allergies, early results have found the immunotherapy has the potential to stop deaths and reduce hospitalisations from accidental exposure.
Sibel Sonmez-Ajtai, paediatric allergy consultant and principal investigator at Sheffield Children's NHS Foundation Trust, said: 'This study is enabling us to do something we would never have dreamed of doing before - giving patients the foods we know they are allergic to.
The research has been funded by the Natasha Allergy Research Foundation, set up in memory of Natasha Ednan-Laperouse who died in 2016 (pictured). She suffered a severe allergic reaction to sesame baked into a Pret baguette she bought at Heathrow airport
'This treatment is not a cure for a food allergy, but what it achieves is life-transforming.
'To have a patient who has had anaphylaxis to 4mls of milk to then tolerate 90mls within six to eight months is nothing less than a miracle.'
The research has been funded by the Natasha Allergy Research Foundation, set up in memory of Natasha Ednan-Laperouse who died in 2016.
The 15-year-old, from Fulham, West London, suffered a severe allergic reaction to sesame baked into a Pret baguette she bought at Heathrow airport.
The sandwich did not have any allergen advice on its wrapper because it was not required by law at the time, as it was made on the premises.
Researchers say early results have found the immunotherapy has the potential to stop deaths and reduce hospitalisations from accidental exposure
Her parents, Nadim and Tanya Ednan-Laperouse, campaigned for a change in food laws and set up the foundation with the hope of curing allergies through research.
The clinical oral immunotherapy (OIT) trial is using everyday foods to build up an allergy patient's tolerance over time.
It is being run at University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust, Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Sheffield Children's NHS Foundation Trust.
