If you’re a parent, you’ll know how worrying it is when your child becomes ill. Children are particularly susceptible to many allergies, which have as a general rule become more widespread in the past few years.
DBV Technologies.com, a French firm based in the Paris area, has been working to provide parents with effective ways of diagnosing and treating some of the more common allergies affecting babies and children. Its research has come up with the revolutionary – yet in many ways very simple – Viaskin Patch.
Source: http://www.dbv-technologies.com
The Viaskin patch is a small adhesive patch worn on the patient’s arm which releases minute quantities of an allergen into the body. This compound is contained in the patch in dry form, but thanks to a kind of ‘condensation chamber’ effect, when applied to the skin it solubilizes and thus is able to penetrate the epidermis to reach the Langerhans cells, which are the body’s most tolerogenic cells. This greatly reduces the risk of anaphylactic shock during the course of the treatment. As well as being applicable to cows’ milk protein allergy (see below), patches for peanut and egg allergies are also under development.