How can I know if my penicillin allergy is real?

People with a penicillin allergy on their medical record are not given penicillins (or often their relatives the cephalosporins) when they have infections. Instead, the antibiotics prescribed may be broader-spectrum, less effective, and/or more toxic. Penicillin alternatives may be less effective or more toxic One recent national study from more than 100 US hospitals with almost 11,000 patients demonstrated that if you have a reported penicillin allergy, you are five times more likely to be prescribed clindamycin than if you do not have that label. Clindamycin is an antibiotic that is highly associated with the potentially life-threatening Clostridioides difficile (C. diff) gastrointestinal infection. A study using comprehensive United Kingdom data recently confirmed that people with a documented penicillin allergy have a 69% increased risk of C. diff. When patients undergo surgery, a penicillin relative (cefazolin) is often used to prevent an infection at the surgical site. However, according to this study, in patients labeled with a penicillin allergy, cefazolin is routinely avoided in place of a less effective substitute, resulting in a 50% higher risk of surgical site infections for people with a documented penicillin allergy. Confirming or ruling out a penicillin allergy through penicillin allergy testing could justify the risks of avoiding beta-lactams (the drug class that includes penicillins and cephalosporins), or potentially avert them by allowing doctors to prescri...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Allergies Drugs and Supplements Source Type: blogs