Hair of the Dog Allergy Cure

Friday 9th April 2010

A British boy with a severe dog allergy has been successfully cured following a ground-breaking ‘hair of the dog’ treatment. The eleven year old schoolboy, Danny Pearce, was given an experimental drug that was partly made from real animal hair. Danny is now able to walk and pet dogs after years of suffering from the debilitating animal allergy.

Before treatment, Danny had experienced a number of violent and near fatal allergic reactions following contact with dogs. His dog hair allergy was so severe that everyday activities including walking to school, visiting a neighbour or going to the local park had to be carried out with the utmost care. Danny’s father Jonathan Pearce says that prior to treatment Danny had “no quality of life”.

Following a referral to paediatric consultant Dr. Adam Fox, Danny was the first in Britain to be offered the experimental drug Staloral, made in part from dog hair. Doctors hoped that daily exposure to the unlicensed ‘hair of the dog’ drug treatment would desensitise Danny and cure his allergy. Danny’s treatment started over a four day intensive exposure to the drug, with Danny spraying the drug under his tongue every half hour. After this four day burst, Danny was told to use the drug three times a day to build his dog allergy immunity.

Danny is now able to walk and pet dogs following two years of drug therapy and viewers will be able to follow his remarkable recovery in an instalment of BBC documentary series Horizon, that is due to be screened later this year. However Danny’s ‘hair of the dog’ treatment has not been without risk. Danny could have reacted violently to treatment at any time and the drug, Staloral, is still considered experimental. It is hoped that this treatment can be developed to help the many other people who suffer pet allergies throughout the UK.

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