MJN Hosts Second Allergy Day Workshop

Mead Johnson held its second Allergy Day workshop from April 20 – 21, 2017 in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. The event brought together more than 150 pediatric specialists from 17 countries and was accredited by the European Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education. The first Allergy Day meeting was held in October, 2014 in Madrid, Spain and explored the latest advances in the nutritional management of cow’s milk allergy (CMA).

This year’s workshop brought scientists and thought-leaders back together to discuss new innovations to facilitate the patient’s journey to tolerance of CMA at earlier stages. Breakout sessions at the event were highly interactive, with questions from the audience driving the discussion and bringing these important topics to life. Mead Johnson’s Chief Medical Officer, Colin Rudolph, attended the workshop, saying “MJN is honored to host this event, where cutting-edge insights in pediatric allergy were presented by global leaders in the field.  Educating health care professionals is part of our commitment to improving children’s health.”

The World Allergy Organization estimates that 1.9% to 4.9% of children live with CMA, which positions this disorder among the leading environmental epidemic diseases for children in the developed world. Experts have identified the allergy march, which usually appears along with CMA, as an area of unmet need. The allergy march is the natural course of allergic disease, with a progression from eczema and food allergy in early childhood to asthma and allergic rhinitis at school age. However, as its symptoms are frequently misunderstood and misinterpreted, the allergy march is often linked to a lack of clinical approaches to intervene at early stages.

The medical community continues to seek innovative nutritional solutions that help induce tolerance in early stages of the allergy march, because “children with CMA have an increased risk to develop other allergic manifestations (AMs)”, according to Dr. Berni Canani, Associate Professor of Pediatrics at University of Naples Federico II and Principal Investigator at European Laboratory for the Investigation of Food Induced Diseases. Dr. Canani led a session titled “Diet, microbiome and epigenetics as potential targets for CMA treatment and atopic march prevention”. During his presentation, Dr. Canani announced that that he and his team recently “found that extensively hydrolyzed casein formula containing L. rhamnosus GG reduces the occurrence of other AMs, and increases the rate of tolerance acquisition at 12, 24 and 36 months”, which could mitigate the rising incidence of AMs among CMA in children.

Dr. Adam Fox, Consultant Pediatric Allergist at Guy´s & St. Thomas´ Hospitals in London, led a session on the evolution of CMA management, saying “Changes (in the management of AMs) are being driven by our better understanding of the underlying mechanisms in tolerance induction, together with the emerging clinical data on approaches that may influence it”.

Additional session topics included the expanding spectrum of gastrointestinal (GI) allergy disorders, Eosinophilic Esophagitis (EoE) treatment and Food Protein-Induced Enterocolitis Syndrome (FPIES) diagnosis and management. The panelists encouraged attendees to keep innovating and working toward better management of the allergy march, and also stressed the need for action to unify recommendations in areas where guidelines are lacking.