A new peanut allergy blood test developed in Britain is said to be more accurate, safer, and more cost effective than other tests being used.
Researchers have said the new blood test uses skin pricks instead of “oral food challenges,” the BBC News reported on Thursday. Details of the new study were published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.
"The current tests are not ideal," said Dr. Alexandra Santos, of King's College London, according to the BBC News. "If we relied on them alone, we'd be over-diagnosing food allergies – only 22 percent of school-aged children in the UK with a positive test to peanuts are actually allergic when they're fed the food in a monitored setting."
Researchers said the blood test should be seen as a better second option for children rather than a feeding schedule, The Guardian reported.
Santos told the BBC that oral food challenges, conducted in a hospital with an allergist and two nurses with an individual patient, who needs constant monitoring, "require access to sophisticated medical facilities needed to treat severe allergic reactions should they develop, which can be very expensive."
Researchers said, according to The Guardian, said the new test is specific in confirming the diagnosis.
"We would reduce by two-thirds the number of expensive, stressful, oral food challenges conducted, as well as saving children from experiencing allergic reactions," researchers said, per The Guardian.
Roughly five percent to eight percent of United Kingdom children suffered from a food allergy, with up to one in 55 being allergic to peanuts, The Guardian noted. In the United States, an estimated four percent to six percent of children suffer from food allergies, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC said there is there is no cure for food allergies and reactions can be life threatening, thus sufferers must follow a strict avoidance of the food allergen to avoid reaction.
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