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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsOh, I see how your'e gonna play this...
Oh, I see how you're gonna play this....:
gregcrawford
(2,382 posts)Now THAT frames the debate over twisted priorities beautifully!
onecaliberal
(32,929 posts)So true. Importance cannot be overstated! The science deniers must be shouted down. Their ignorance is killing children.
AtheistCrusader
(33,982 posts)We don't send stuff to my kid's school because there IS a kid there that is allergic, and at their age, It's impossible to police the lunchroom enough. They're kids.
But the latter half... That's just good neighbor stuff. Part of being a society. I vaccinate my kid not just for his own protection, but for the kid like the kid with the peanut allergy, but instead of an allergy, a immunocompromised issue that cannot be vaccinated. As a member of society, I think I have a duty to be a good steward of that society within my reach. It's the neighborly thing to do. Otherwise, fuck it, I can just go live on an oil rig forever by myself. To hell with society.
It bothers me that people profit from a progressive society, with collaborative efforts for sanitation, transportation, defense, etc, that have no desire to contribute to that society in any way.
MADem
(135,425 posts)The argument could be made that only an uncaring parent would not get the treatment for their child; it's simple, it just takes TIME (something some parents are unwilling to spend with their children).
Very soon, this will be the Standard of Care:
http://healthland.time.com/2014/01/30/scientists-to-cure-peanut-allergies/
Eighty percent of children who participated in an experimental treatment at Addenbrookes Hospital in the U.K. for six months were afterwards able to safely eat peanuts without a experiencing a reaction. The researchers at the hospital gave 99 kids between the ages 7 and 16 increasing doses of peanut flour mixed in with their food. Researchers slowly upped the amount of flour from 2 milligrams to 800 milligrams. At the end of the trial, the scientists reported that well over half of the children could eat five peanuts at a time without experiencing dangerous side effects.
The idea behind the therapy is that the childrens immune systems slowly build a tolerance to peanuts through consuming small amounts. The goal of the treatment is not to completely cure the children of their allergies, but to help them build a tolerance that will prevent them from having severe and life-threatening reactions if they come into contact with them. The researchers plan to test the same treatment in larger populations.
Health experts are not sure why, but food allergies are on a rise in the U.S. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that 4-6% of U.S. children have a food allergy. How food allergies develop is still being studied, but some guesses are that Americas high standard of sanitation is making us too clean and unable to build up immune systems that can fight common allergens from foods and the environment. Its also possible that kids who dont eat foods like peanuts and shellfish when they are younger may develop allergies to them.
Finding a treatment or cure for severe allergies will not only help families who are currently forced to read food labels and carry emergency treatments, but would also bring down treatment costs. Food allergies are costing U.S. families about $25 billion a year, according to research from September, which boils down to $4,184 per child. Not to mention, about $4.3 billion of these costs are for medical fees like emergency treatments for reactions.
They've run protocols in USA at several locations doing the same thing with similar results. The days of holding an entire school hostage because one kid is allergic are soon to end. This treatment will become the solution to the problem, probably sooner than we realize. Of course, the parent has to take the child to the doctor and the doctor administers the treatment, at least initially, to check for reactions/sensitivity. That takes time out of a day, so it will involve some parental sacrifice. The benefit is that the child never has to worry about dying from shock after exposure.
In one study I read about, the child was "prescribed" one Peanut M and M per day to keep the tolerance level to peanuts up.
randome
(34,845 posts)Or something similar.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]Don't ever underestimate the long-term effects of a good night's sleep.[/center][/font][hr]
MADem
(135,425 posts)that they'll stir up some of that eeeeeevil peanut dust!