Relative Risk of Peanut Allergy across the Globe; Where Toxicology Meets Immunology

In December 2015, the World Health Organization (WHO) published the first ever report on the estimates of the global burden of foodborne diseases, which included diseases related to chemical exposures in foods such as peanut allergy. In the report, the burden of disease related to peanut allergies was measured for the European, American and West Pacific Regions. The report showed that unlike other food-related chemical exposures, peanut allergies are far more common in the European and American Regions than in the West Pacific Region. In this commentary we tried to inform physicians and public health workers, and to raise awareness about peanut allergies to facilitate future discussions. Although the WHO report on the estimates of the global burden of foodborne diseases indicates a possible geographical difference in global peanut allergy prevalence, further studies need to compare the relative risk of peanut allergies among individuals of different racial backgrounds in one defined population.