Hanna Carter, 5, of Roanoke, Va., takes a dosage of peanut protein from Nurse Practitioner Pam Steele at the Duke South Clinic at Duke University in Durham, N.C. A handful of children once severely allergic to peanuts now can eat them without worry. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome)
Walk into a school today and it’s right up there with knives, guns and other forbidden and dangerous weapons — peanuts (and their various nefarious forms including peanut butter). For those of us without peanut allergies, who grew up with peanut butter and jelly as much a part of our childhood lunches as tigers were a part of Siegfried and Roy, it’s always seemed a bit peculiar.
Nevertheless, 1.8 million people suffer from peanut allergies in the U.S. — an allergy that can have some severe reactions including death. But could a cure put the chill on our peanut fear frenzy? An Associate Press story today gives hope. From the AP:
Five kids now are allergy-free thanks to a scary treatment – tiny amounts of the very food that endangered them.
But over several years, the children’s bodies learned to tolerate peanuts. Doctors at the hosptials must track them years longer to be sure.
Don’t try this at home. Doctors at Duke University Medical Center and Arkansas Children’s Hospital monitored the youngsters closely in case they needed rescue, and there’s no way to dice a peanut as small as the treatment doses required.
There are no peanut allergies in my home, but since peanuts aren’t allowed at my son’s daycare, we’ve just switched over to almond butter. It’s pretty tasty stuff, but at $10 a jar, those “peanut butter” and jelly sandwiches are now on par with fillet mignon.
Noah R. Bombard is the new media editor for The Eagle-Tribune in North Andover. He is a former award-winning newspaper and magazine editor who has been covering news in Massachusetts since 1997.