Penicillin Allergy- Ciprofloxacin Is Used As An Alternate Antibiotic
Nowadays, in most case files of every hospital you can see that 1 out of 10 suffer from penicillin allergy or related antibiotic. An allergic reaction caused due to the body’s immune system overreacting to penicillin antibiotics treating it as harmful substance is termed penicillin allergy. Penicillin is nothing but a group of antibiotics from Penicillium fungi. These antibiotics prove to be historically significant as it is the first drug effective against various bacterial infections, severe diseases such as syphilis and many Staphylococcal infections.
Ciprofloxacin is used as an alternate antibiotic for those who have reported penicillin allergy. You can order them from an online pharmacy.
Penicillin is a member of a group of antibiotics named beta lactams. This refers to a structure in their chemical makeup. Cephalosporins, amoxicillin, and other antibiotics do share this structure. These drugs can be administered orally or via injections. The most commonly used antibiotics to treat infections are penicillin and cephalosporins and these even are the most common cause of drug allergies in many of them. Most people who are allergic to penicillin are also allergic to cephalosporin and related antibiotics. It is reported that about 5 to 10% of the people with penicillin allergy are allergic to cephalosporins.
The most common symptoms of penicillin allergy include hives, rashes, itchy eyes, and swollen tongue, lips, or face. The rare ones include anaphylactic reaction, which is life-threatening. It takes hardly an hour after the intake of penicillin. The symptom includes hives, difficulty breathing, wheezing, dizziness, tachycardia, weak pulse, diarrhea, blue skin, nausea, vomiting, and loss of consciousness. Allergic reactions caused by cephalosporins are all dangerous and hence advised to avoid in people with penicillin allergy. Penicillin allergy is also reported to cause sulfa allergy in many people.
Less than 10% of the people have true allergy to penicillin who report to have this drug allergy. The best way of diagnosing proves to be skin testing. RAST (Radio-Allergo-Sorbent-Test) is available these days to diagnose drug allergy. Penicillin allergy is not present at birth and usually occurs after being first exposed to it.
The treatment for this drug allergy is simply avoiding the medication and related antibiotics. In certain cases where patients definitely need to take penicillin or cephalosporin in spite of their allergies, the only possible way is desensitization. This process implies intake of small quantities of the drug and gradual increase up to what you can tolerate. This lets the body system to get used to the medication and tolerates it. Desensitization needs to be repeated in the future if a situation arises in the future of using penicillin again. Desensitization does not last long.
A person having this drug allergy should avoid the whole family of penicillin which includes amoxicillin, ampicillin, nafcillin, oxacillin, dicloxacillin, Augmentin, Zosyn, Unasyn, penicillin VK, and penicillin G. The cephalosporin family includes Ancef, Keflex, Ceftin, Omnicef, Cefzil, and Vantin.
Imipenem also causes allergies in people with penicillin allergy and hence should be avoided.
It is essential that patients let know the doctor that they have penicillin allergy in order to prevent them from the various hazards of this drug allergy.
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