Can the burden of disease due to food allergy be prevented?

Can the burden of disease due to food allergy be prevented? " What is food to one, to another is rank poison " —Titus Lucretius Cato (98 –55 BC) F rom time immemorial, there have been early descriptions of harmful reactions seen after the in-gestion of food that substantiate our continued interest and study of food allergy (FA) today. At no time has the potential for prevention and management of the condition been greater than in recent years. Despite these advances, there continue to be significant psy-chosocial and financial issues that contribute to the burden of illness associated with the condition. This issue leads off with a review article by Patel et al. 1 who succinctly outlined the psychosocial and financial burden of illness attributable to FA. In children, this burden of illness is further compounded by comorbidities, e.g., atopic dermatitis, which can negatively impact quality of life. 2 Patel et al. 1 suggested implementing a multidisciplinary approach to help families cope with the emotional, social, and financial burden associated with FA. Peanut allergy is one of the most prevalent food allergies and is responsible for a substantial burden of disease. In this issue, Greenhawt 3 provided a timely article that highlighted the new NIAID sponsored guidelines on the topic of preventing peanut allergy. This guideline introduces a new paradigm in food allergy prevention based on the Learning Early About Peanut Allergy study, which showed that early peanut introduction (between 4 and 11 months of life) was associated with a significant absolute and relative risk reduction in the development of peanut allergy compared with delayed introduction. 4 Adherence to these new clinical practice guidelines holds great promise of reducing both the prevalence of peanut allergy and its associated psychosocial and financial burden of illness; however, one of the major challenges for the implementation of guidelines, in general, is nonadherence. Because of the importance of this article and its clinically useful implications, it was chosen for this is-sue's " For the Patient " section. This segment, found in the final pages of the print version of this issue and also available online, consists of a one-page, article synopsis, written in a readily comprehensible fashion to help patients better understand the content of the full article. Another area in which nonadherence plays a significant role is the implementation of guidelines associated with allergy immunotherapy (AIT). In this issue, Karam et al. 5 …