Peanut and cows’ milk allergies could be a thing of the past thanks to DBV-Technologies!
DBV-Technologies is a company based in northern France which specializes in developing treatments for allergy sufferers. Allergies affect a surprisingly large proportion of the population – cows’ milk protein allergy, for example, impacts anything up to 1 in 30 children, while 100s of thousands of people are admitted to hospital every year as a result of allergic reactions to eating peanuts.
Source: http://www.dbv-technologies.com
You can look here for more information on DBV-Technologies’ Viaskin peanut allergy treatment technique. It offers a potentially revolutionary way of treating and diagnosing peanut allergy, without the pain and attendant risks of an injection-based approach.
The small patch (shown below), is applied to the patient’s arm and can be taken off at any time. It works by introducing the antigens that provoke the allergic reactions in the individual in question into the Langerhans cells. These cells are antigen-presenting immune cells and therefore are perfect for ‘densensitization’ purposes. The patch format is very versatile, and could be adapted to treat a wide variety of allergies. Work is already underway on a third version which will tackle house dust mite allergy.