Genetically modified foods and food allergy.

Genetic modification of foods is one of the many ways of processing that can enhance foods to increase desirable qualities, such as herbicide tolerance, bacteria and insect resistance, improved nutritional value, and delayed ripening. However, a theoretical potential to increase the allergenicity of food proteins has been the subject of concern from critics. To prevent adverse effects from genetically modified (GM) crops, national and international organizations tightly regulate their production and recommend rigorous safety testing.

The Future of Food Allergy Management: Advancements in Therapies.

Purpose Of Review: To review current and future treatment options for IgE-mediated food allergy.

Recent Findings: Recent years have seen major developments in both allergen-specific and allergen-non-specific treatment options, with the first FDA-approved peanut oral immunotherapy (OIT) product becoming available in 2020. In addition to OIT, other immunotherapy modalities, biologics, adjunct therapies, and novel therapeutics are under investigation.

Environmental Injustice Is Associated With Poorer Asthma Outcomes in School-Age Children With Asthma in Metropolitan Atlanta, Georgia.

Background: Environmental justice mandates that no person suffers disproportionately from environmental exposures. The Environmental Justice Index (EJI) provides an estimate of the environmental burden for each census tract but has not yet been used in asthma populations.

Objective: We hypothesized that children from census tracts with high environmental injustice determined by the EJI would have a greater burden of asthma exacerbations, poorer asthma control, and poorer lung function over 12 months.

Congenital Tuberculosis After In Vitro Fertilization: A Case for Tuberculosis Screening of Women Evaluated for Infertility.

We report a case of multidrug-resistant congenital tuberculosis (TB) in an infant conceived by in vitro fertilization and review 22 additional infant-mother pairs in the literature. Females evaluated for infertility should be screened for TB risk, and those at risk require a TB-specific diagnostic evaluation before receiving assisted reproductive treatment.

Allergen Immunotherapy Extract Shortages and Their Effects on Clinical Care: A Work Group Report of the AAAAI Immunotherapy, Allergen Standardization, and Allergy Diagnostics Committee.

Allergen immunotherapy (AIT) is the only disease-modifying therapy indicated for treatment of allergic asthma, rhinitis, conjunctivitis, and Hymenoptera hypersensitivity. Manufacturing of the extracts used in AIT involve multistep complex processes as well as regulatory oversight. Furthermore, some source materials are vulnerable to unexpected events of nature.