BALTIMORE, Md. (Ivanhoe Newswire) – Milk, eggs, peanuts — they are the top three when it comes to food allergies. According to researchers, up to eight percent of kids and 10 percent of adults have at least one food allergy, and of those, 86 percent are allergic to more than one food. If you or your child has a food allergy, you know how terrifying and exhausting it can be – always being aware of what ingredients are in the food you eat. EpiPens are a life saver, and now, a new treatment may help block allergic reactions from happening.
Fourteen-year-old Ellie Rubinfeld has lightening reflexes, and she also has to keep her eye on the ball when it comes to what she eats.
“I can’t have eggs, peanuts, tree nuts and sesame,” she says.
Ellie had her first allergic reaction as an infant.
Ellie’s mother, Andrea Rubinfield recalls, “She had her first taste of formula. She broke out in a full baby body rash.”
Ellie’s grown up cautious.
“You’re warned all the time, you know, ‘Don’t eat this, don’t eat that.’ Like, ‘It’s for your own good, it’s for your safety’,” Ellie says.
She was one of the first to try a new approach. Director of the Eudowood Division of Allergy, Immunology and Rheumatology at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center, Robert Wood, MD led a clinical trial on omalizumab — an already FDA-approved drug for asthma and other allergies, and found that this drug also limits the reactions in people who have multiple food allergies.
“This, thankfully, is a non-specific. It blocks all foods equally,” Dr. Wood mentions.
After bi-weekly or monthly injections, almost 70 percent were able to tolerate two and a half peanuts, and a majority were able to tolerate 15. It doesn’t sound like much, but when a sliver of one single peanut could cause a deadly reaction, this drug could be lifesaving. As for Ellie?
“She came outta that study with a changed life. She was able to tolerate the foods that she went into the study allergic to,” Dr. Wood says proudly.
And hopefully, one day, Ellie will be able to eat whatever she wants without fear.
“I’d wanna eat an omelet. I have a lot of friends who like omelets and I’d like to try one,” Ellie tells Ivanhoe.
The study also found omalizumab helped in blocking reactions to not only peanuts, but to milk, eggs, wheat, cashews, walnuts and hazelnuts. Omalizumab is also considered unique, as it is safe for children as young as one-year-olds. Currently, there is only one additional FDA-approved treatment for food allergy – it’s an oral immunotherapy that is approved only for peanut allergies in children four to 17 years of age.
Contributors to this news report include: Marsha Lewis, Producer; Matt Goldschmidt, Videographer; Roque Correa, Editor.
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Sources:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36596337/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37100276/
https://www.fda.gov/vaccines-blood-biologics/allergenics/palforzia
