Peanut Allergy Case Study

1385 Words3 Pages

Allergy usually occur when adverse reaction were triggered by immune response when expose to harmless substances. Allergens are able to enter the body via air orally or ingested with food, when the allergen enter the body of a person who were previously expose to the allergen, the allergen will bind to the antibodies on the surface of the mast cell. Mast cells then undergo degranulation and release mediator to cause a chain of allergic response. Food allergy reaction is triggered when the immune system mistakenly integrate certain food protein as harmful and foreign substances. Food allergy has become more common in Australia for the past decades since more food were globalized and introduced. Prospective study conducted in Australia shows …show more content…

The development of rural areas provides increase the chances of an individual exposing to peanut allergen. Study conducted in the United States shows a significant association between peanut allergy and geographic region. The study shows that increase in population density associate with an increase in prevalence of food allergy. 6.2% of the children living in rural area have food allergies whereas 9.8% of that lives in city. Prevalence of peanut allergy in children living in city is twice higher than children from rural area (Gupta RS et al. 2012). Children in the city have wider access to peanut product and confectionary made of peanut in the …show more content…

Hygiene hypothesis suggested that lifestyle with better health and sterilized facilities in western countries decrease the chances of exposure to microbial substances, virulent substances and allergen during childhood. A study conducted to study two group of people from different country but genetically-related race of Europeans. 266 of Finnish children and 266 of Karelian children allergen-specific IgE were recruited and sampled. The study results shows though that Karelian children has twice as much of IgE than Finnish children, but IgE from Finnish children shows a significant high amount of specific-allergen IgE. Prevalence of microbial antibodies against are also significantly higher in Karelian children. The high prevalence of microbial antibodies reflects poor environmental hygiene and high rate of pathogenic infection in Karelian, therefore more antibodies are produce to fence off harmful microbes and chemical. The low specific-allergen IgE in Karelian children reflects low prevalence of allergic sensitized. The author assumes that children in Finland are exposed to infection at lower rate and older age. The hygiene hypothesis also explained that infections happened during infancy promote the maturation immune system, development of TH1 and TH2 lymphoctyes balance (Seiskari T et al,

Open Document