Jonathan Wilhoite Blog: Allergy Misdiagnosis For Antibiotics Can Be Dangerous

Thursday, April 21, 2016

Allergy Misdiagnosis For Antibiotics Can Be Dangerous

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Before you try to do some skin allergy test, make sure to get a second opinion or seek medical advice as the medical community warned recently that possible misdiagnosis could occur and might make you take action in the opposite, even deadly manner.

This after doctors from Canada stated that adults and children should be properly diagnosed for allergies on antibiotics like penicillin and amoxicillin may be administered incorrectly or even prescribed with more toxic or expensive substitutes.

Recent statistics from several hospitals and health clinics in Canada showed an alarming 80 percent of adults and 90 percent of children tested for penicillin allergies are in fact ‘safe’ from being prescribed with the antibiotic.

“It should be tested properly and people should be aware that when they’re diagnosed with a penicillin allergy, the subjects could develop an immunity or outgrow the condition or it may even be a virus that was misdiagnosed’, said Dr. Gordon Sussmam, a leading immunologist and allergy specialist from Toronto.

Assistant professor in allergy and immunology at the Montreal Children’s Dr. Moshe Ben-Shoshan pointed out the importance of proper and accurate diagnosis of penicillin allergy for very important reasons.

“Very important because for those who do have allergies, we don’t know the severity of subsequent reactions so it’s important to establish the true presence of allergy,” Dr. Ben Shoshan said, adding that it could otherwise result to an incorrect approach to treatment and may result to more expensive yet less effective substitutes that could prove to be harmful instead of beneficial.

One example is a type of ear infection among children in America that accounts for the most number of medical visits called acute otitis media, where amoxicillin is commonly prescribed for treatment, although a thorough observation would have been appropriately recommended.

Dr. Ben-Shoshan pointed out that a rash is often pointed out as a tell-tale sign of the allergy in 10 percent of cases reported as allergies where amoxicillin is commonly prescribed.

He also pointed out the poor value of the skin tests to screen for amoxicillin allergy.

Antibiotics are an important treatment for bacterial infection and preventing diseases however, misuse or overuse of antibiotics cause antibiotic resistance in the body and bacteria that are not addressed by the treatment develops a resistance to the type of antibiotics used and resists it potency.

It is therefore advised that antibiotic treatments should be best prescribed and administered in the right doses and for the right bacterial infection that it should be treating.

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