Penicillin Allergy Error?

[westv]

Millions wrongly labelled with penicillin allergy, pharmacists warn

Many people are needlessly avoiding the most common antibiotics, which are the most effective.

www.bbc.co.uk

Millions of people wrongly believe they are allergic to penicillin, which could mean they take longer to recover after an infection, pharmacists say.
About four million people in the UK have the drug allergy on their medical record - but when tested, 90% of them are not allergic, research suggests.

4m?! I never realised it was so many. I always assumed it was some sort of rare condition.

 

[jfollows]

When I was last in hospital (ten years ago) I was given a wrist band which I was told denoted this allergy because they didn't have a "normal" one, but which implies they have a lot of them. I managed to get it changed the next morning - I'm definitely not allergic to penicillin.

 

[Busaholic]

Millions wrongly labelled with penicillin allergy, pharmacists warn

Many people are needlessly avoiding the most common antibiotics, which are the most effective.

www.bbc.co.uk

4m?! I never realised it was so many. I always assumed it was some sort of rare condition.

I was put in my place by a hospital doctor back in April after I was admitted following my complete collapse in reaction to an antibiotic containing penicillin: he told me just because I'd had that reaction to it didn't prove I was allergic to it. As it was the first day of the first Junior Doctors strike and he was the only doctor outside of A&E I had to lie there and listen to his rationale but in the end he was the difference between me getting out of there rather than be shipped to another hospital as the first stage in my 'rehabilitation.'

My sister, on an oxygen machine for a decade, is certainly allergic to penicillin though.

 

[jfollows]

I agree there's a huge difference between intolerance and allergy.
Since the age of about 50 I've become intolerant to eating snails, I don't know why, there wasn't a specific cause that I'm aware of, but I've tried two more times to be sure and on each occasion my body decides to get rid of them as quickly as it can. However I'm not allergic to snails, I don't have any separate bad reaction.
The BBC report says that people who have negative reactions to penicillin wrongly conclude that they're allergic to it. My experience is that there's a difference.

 

[ComUtoR]

My Son has that on his medical records because of family history. He did get given it once when he was ickle and he had a VERY bad reaction to it. Personally I now have to mention that I might be 'allergic' to codeine because when I was in hospital and they were giving me codeine... it was making me sicker and sicker.

I doubt that either of us are 'Allergic' in the true sense of the word but the discussion about what meds you can and can't take generally comes in the form of "are you allergenic to..."

 

[randyrippley]

Last time I used Amoxcillin I got a complete body rash.
Penicillin allergies are real and can be serious.

 

[Bayum]

Last time I used Amoxcillin I got a complete body rash.
Penicillin allergies are real and can be serious.

Whole body rashes are extremely common with penicillins. In fact, some rashes are expected when taking penicillins - Jarisch Herxheimer reactions for example.
As many as 10% of people taking amoxicillin develop a full body rash within a 7 day period.

 

[ainsworth74]

Yes I apparently get a rash all over or similar from Amoxicillin, not sure about Penicillin itself but I would presume I may well have a similar reaction. That being said I was only a toddler the last time I had Amoxicillin so who knows what would happen as an adult. But I just say I have an allergy because, so far at least, on the odd occasion I've needed an anti-biotic there's been a perfectly suitable alternative. Erythromycin seems to be the fall back and it's always worked. I did have one doctor who wanted to proscribe me Amoxicillin and went so far as to enquire how allergic to it I was (this was years ago before the most recent news stories) but he begrudgingly prescribed Erythromycin when I insisted on not being giving Amoxicillin which funnily enough did the trick so no idea why he wanted to persist in giving me something I, at the very least, appear to have an intolerance to!

 

[4COR]

Yes I apparently get a rash all over or similar from Amoxicillin, not sure about Penicillin itself but I would presume I may well have a similar reaction. That being said I was only a toddler the last time I had Amoxicillin so who knows what would happen as an adult.

Exactly the same - the last time I had it (I was probably about 4 years old) I came out in hives and rash all over, in what would be classed as a full body systemic reaction - in much the same way when I was last stung by a bee... Have had a lot of disbelieving questions from doctors about it; none have been brave enough, or had the time to refer me to properly test me though.

 

[cb a1]

According to my Mum. I was diagnosed with German Measles 5 times by the age of 5 (late 60s / early 70s) before a doctor put two and two together and realised it was the penicillin.

 

[nlogax]

According to my Mum. I was diagnosed with German Measles 5 times by the age of 5 (late 60s / early 70s) before a doctor put two and two together and realised it was the penicillin.

Oddly enough that combination is scribbled on the back of my birth certificate. 'German measles at xx months' followed by 'penicillin allergy' written underneath. This has me curious now!

 

[Geezertronic]

I was always told by my parents since I was very young that I had an allergy with penicillin, don't know why or what happened when I had penicillin, but I've always listed it as an allergy

 

[WatcherZero]

Its quite common when you are ill that your bodies hyper-stimulated immune system wrongly identifies something benign in your blood stream like an animal/vegetable protein as a pathogen and chooses to attack it, then that immune response persists leading to an allergy being created.
What crops up with Penicillin is its naturally present in mouldy bread, so you may be exposed when ill and so acquire an allergy even if youve never directly taken the drug.