Imagine this: You are in a doctor’s office with a sore throat. The nurse asks, “Any allergy?” And don’t hesitate to say, Penicillin. This is something you said for years – maybe from childhood, maybe because your father told you so. The nurse nods, makes the inscription and moves on.
But here’s a football player: There is a good chance that you are not really allergic to penicillin. About 10-20% of Americans say they have an allergy to penicillin, but in reality it is less than 1%.
I am a clinical pharmaceutical associate professor specialized in infectious diseases. I examine antibiotics and allergies to medicines, including ways to determine whether people have penicillin allergy.
I know from my studies that incorrectly marked allergic penicillin, you can prevent the most suitable and safest treatment of infection. It can also lead to increased antimicrobial resistance resistance, that is, when the antibiotic is no longer against bacteria.
Good news? It has become much easier to determine the truth of the issue in recent years. More and more clinics doctors now acknowledge that many allergies allergy labels are wrong – and there are safe, easy ways to learn their true allergy status.
A solid rescue tool
Penicillin, the first antibiotic medicine, was detected in 1928, when a doctor named Alexander Fleming extracted it from this type of mold called Penicillium. It became widely used to treat infections in the 1940s. Penicillin and closely related antibiotics such as amoxicillin and amoxicillin/clavulanate, which are brand name Augmentin, are often used to treat conventional infections such as ear infections, rod throat, urinary tract infections, pneumonia and dental infections.
Alexander Fleming (Getty Images)
Penicillin antibiotics are a class of narrow spectrum antibiotics, which means they are directed to specific types of bacteria. People who report that they have allergies to penicillin are more likely to get a wide range of antibiotics. A wide range of antibiotics kill many types of bacteria, including useful, making it easier for bacteria to survive and spread. This increases the development of antibiotics resistance. A wide range of antibiotics can also be less effective and often more expensive.
Why a mismatch?
People are often allergic to antibiotics like children when they have a reaction such as a rash afterwards. However, skin rashes often occur with infections in childhood. Numerous viruses and infections actually cause rashes. If a child is taking antibiotic at that time, he or she may be marked as allergic, even if the rashes may have been caused by the disease itself.
Some side effects such as nausea, diarrhea or headaches may occur with antibiotics, but they do not always mean you are allergic. These normal reactions usually pass independently or can be controlled. A doctor or pharmacist can talk to you about ways to reduce this side effect.
People also often think that penicillin allergies occur in families, but having a relative with an allergy does not mean that you are allergic – it is not hereditary.
Finally, about 80% of patients with real allergy penicillin will lose their allergy after about 10 years. This means that even if you have been allergic to this antibiotic before, you may not be gone, depending on your reaction time.
Why is it important if I have an allergy to penicillin?
The belief that you are allergic to penicillin when you are not adversely affecting your health.
On the one hand, you are more likely to get stronger, broad -spectrum antibiotics, which are not always best suited and may have more side effects. It may also be more prone to infection after surgery and spend longer in hospital hospital due to infection. In addition, your medical accounts may be higher due to more expensive drug use.
Those with penicillin allergy
Penicillin and its close cousins are often the best remedies that doctors need to treat many infections. If you are not really allergic, finding that it can open the door to safer, more efficient and accessible treatment options.
How can I tell you if I am really allergic to penicillin?
Start by talking to a health care professional such as a doctor or pharmacist. Symptoms of allergy can range from a mild, self -restricted rash to severe face swelling and breathing. A healthcare professional can ask you some questions about your allergy, for example, what happened, as a reaction occurred shortly after the onset of the antibiotic, whether you need treatment, and whether you have been taking similar medications since then.
These questions can help distinguish between true allergies and non -allergic reactions. In most cases, this interview is sufficient to determine that you are not allergic. However, additional tests may sometimes be recommended.
One way to find out if you are actually allergic to penicillin by penicillin skin tests, which include small skin studs and small injections under the skin. These tests use components associated with penicillin to safely check for real allergies. If skin tests do not cause a reaction, the next step is usually to take a low dose of amoxicillin when observed in the doctor’s office, only to make sure it is safe.
2023 A published study showed that in most cases, skipping the skin test and switching to a low test dose can also be a safe way to test real allergies. Patients take a low dose of amoxicillin and are monitored for about 30 minutes to see if any reaction occurs.
With the right questions, testing and expertise, many people can safely recover penicillin as a chance to treat normal infections.
Elizabeth W. Covington is an associated clinical pharmaceutical professor at Auburn University.
This article has been published from a conversation under the Creative Commons license. Read Original article;