Peanut allergy: the "french kiss" can pose a real risk

The peanut-allergic people, especially teenagers, should be warned of the risk posed by the fact that kissing someone who recently ate peanuts or peanut products merely, even if that person is then brushed teeth, U.S. researchers warn.

Last November, a young Quebec allergic apparently died after exchanging a kiss with her boyfriend when it came to eating peanut butter and this information was widely relayed around the world. The results of the autopsy, released in early February, has since contradicted this hypothesis, but "there is a risk that allergens are transferred via saliva," said Dr. Jennifer Maloney, Mount Sinai Medical Center New York, during a press conference in connection with this conference.

A "passionate" kiss shared with a partner who consumed a peanut-based product could expose a person with an allergy to peanut allergens to which it is sensible.Pour verify this point, members of the team led by Dr. Jennifer Maloney evaluated the evolution of the peanut allergen concentration in the saliva after a meal and the effectiveness of different strategies to remove them.

For this, samples were taken repeatedly from ten healthy volunteers who ate a sandwich with two tablespoons of peanut butter as they are or unwashed teeth then, whether or not they is a mouthwash and whether or not they took a chewing gum.

Increasing the concentration of the major salivary peanut allergen, Ara h 1, recorded immediately after ingestion of the sandwich is very variable from one person to another, the authors note. Thus, the allergen is then remained undetectable in the saliva of three participants.

An hour after the meal, six of the seven people in which the first screening test was positive had their salivary concentration of Ara h 1 become undetectable. Finally, half past four after ingestion of the sandwich, all participants had a saliva devoid of any trace of peanut allergen.

Moreover, none of the strategies implemented immediately after ingestion (brushing and / or mouthwash, chewing gum) has helped increase the concentration of allergens below the detection threshold. If these interventions help to reduce the amount of Ara h 1 present in saliva, none of them will not make it disappear entirely, notes the American researchers.

Practitioners must inform their patients with peanut allergy, especially adolescents-the risk that may arise to embrace the fact that someone has to consume a product containing peanuts, and even he washed his teeth, the authors conclude.

The safest approach they recommend, would be that of an allergic person's partner adopted a total eviction of the food concerned regime. In practice, it may be sufficient after having consumed a product containing the allergen, it wait several hours and thoroughly brush your teeth before any kiss. However, a study on a larger scale should be conducted to clarify this point.