ladbible logo

To make sure you never miss out on your favourite NEW stories, we're happy to send you some reminders

Click 'OK' then 'Allow' to enable notifications

Girl's Deadly Peanut Allergy Is ‘Cured’ By Breakthrough Medical Treatment

Girl's Deadly Peanut Allergy Is ‘Cured’ By Breakthrough Medical Treatment

Zalia's allergy meant she could go into anaphylactic shock at the tiniest presence of peanuts.

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie

Nearly three in every 100 people have a peanut allergy around the world. Their allergies range from those who could have a mild reaction if nuts are present in food to essentially dying if there's peanut dust in the air (yeah it gets that serious).

Living like this isn't fun, especially considering they're missing out on things like peanut butter, cookies, ice cream and some Asian or African cuisines.

But this could all be a thing of the past after a Brisbane girl's allergy was cured by a breakthrough treatment.

7 News

Zalia Sly could suffer an anaphylactic reaction if there was even the tiniest amount of peanuts in her food, leading her mum to constantly worry about what she was eating.

Mum Catherine told 7 News: "We used to be worried of going to school if she touched someone, if she touched a playground where there's an allergen on it, if someone gave her some food."

Zalia went to America for an experimental treatment, which involved a syringe filled with peanut powder mixed in with water.

"The first day in the clinic we started at a very, very small dose and then every 20 minutes it increased," Catherine said.

kajsch/Creative Commons

"If she had of had a reaction or any sort of symptoms it would have stopped at that point.

"We've got a whole plan that [the doctor] wrote out before we left of how much to increase it by and the time frame of when to increase it."

Zalia has now been able to try all different foods she wasn't allowed in the past like pizza and cup cakes.

"She's never had them before so she is loving life at the moment," Catherine said.

7 News

"Unless it's the main ingredient in it, we just put it in the trolley, we just buy it, we know that it's going to be safe for her."

But there's a reason why Zalia had to travel all the way to America to get the treatment: it's not approved for use or recommended in Australia.

The Australasian Society of Clinical Immunology and Allergy (ASCIA) said Zalia's treatment, called oral immunotherapy, hasn't been approved as an allergy cure and their effects are still under investigation.

In the meantime, ASCIA says people with a peanut allergy or any other type of allergy should just avoid it altogether to be on the safe side.

Featured Image Credit: 7 News

Topics: Food, Interesting, Community, Australia, Health