BALTIMORE, Maryland (Ivanhoe Newswire) – Milk, eggs, peanuts – these are the three most common food allergies.
According to researchers, up to eight percent of children and ten 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 scary and stressful it can be to constantly know what ingredients are in the foods you eat. EpiPens are a lifesaver, and now a new treatment can help prevent allergic reactions.
14-year-old Ellie Rubinfeld has lightning-fast reflexes and also has to be very careful about her diet.
“I can’t tolerate eggs, peanuts, tree nuts and sesame,” she says.
Ellie had her first allergic reaction as an infant.
Ellie’s mother, Andrea Rubinfield, remembers: “She tried formula for the first time. She got a rash all over her body.”
Ellie has become a cautious adult.
“You’re constantly being warned: ‘Don’t eat this, don’t eat that.’ Like, ‘It’s for your own good, it’s for your safety,'” says Ellie.
She was one of the first to try a new approach. The director of the Eudowood Division of Allergy, Immunology and Rheumatology at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center, Dr. Robert Wood, led a clinical trial of omalizumab — an already FDA-approved drug for asthma and other allergies — and found that this drug also limited reactions in people with multiple food allergies.
“Fortunately, this is a non-specific agent. It blocks all foods equally,” says Dr. Wood.
After two-week or monthly injections, nearly 70 percent of patients tolerated two and a half peanuts, and the majority tolerated 15. That doesn’t sound like much, but if a single piece of peanut can cause a fatal reaction, this drug could be life-saving. And what about Ellie?
“She left the study with a changed life. She could tolerate the foods she was allergic to at the start of the study,” says Dr. Wood proudly.
And hopefully one day Ellie will be able to eat whatever she wants without fear.
“I would like to have an omelette. I have a lot of friends who like omelettes and I would like to try one,” says Ellie Ivanhoe.
The study also found that omalizumab blocked reactions not only to peanuts, but also to milk, eggs, wheat, cashews, walnuts and hazelnuts. Omalizumab is also considered unique because it is safe for children as young as one year old. There is currently only one other FDA-approved treatment for food allergies – an oral immunotherapy that is only approved for peanut allergies in children ages four to 17.
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