Peanut allergy is a common problem and can be the cause of severe, 
life-threatening allergic reactions. It rarely resolves, with the majority of 
patients carrying the disease onto adulthood. Peanut allergy poses a significant 
burden on the quality of life of sufferers and their families, which results 
mainly from the fear of accidental peanut ingestion, but is also due to dietary 
and social restrictions. Current standard management involves avoidance, patient 
education and provision of emergency medication, for use in allergic reactions, 
when they occur. Efforts have been made to develop a vaccine for peanut allergy. 
Recent developments have also highlighted the use of immunotherapy, which has 
shown promise as an active form of treatment and may present a disease-modifying 
therapy for peanut allergy. So far, results, especially from oral immunotherapy 
studies, have shown good efficacy in achieving desensitization to peanut with a 
good safety profile. However, the capacity to induce long-term tolerance has not 
been demonstrated conclusively yet and larger, phase III studies are required to 
further investigate safety and efficacy of this intervention. Peanut 
immunotherapy is not currently recommended for routine clinical use or outside 
specialist allergy units.