Charlie Macfarlane’s infection in his left arm was serious; he was treated in the emergency room with penicillin antibiotics and stayed in the hospital for three days.
During his treatment he also had an allergic reaction.
“I had another quite serious allergic reaction during my time there,” Macfarlane told Global News.
His doctors were concerned he was allergic to penicillin and recommended that once he left hospital he should get tested.
“Turned out I was not allergic to penicillin,” said Macfarlane.
It’s something Dr. Elizabeth Weber sees all the time.
“You can get a rash from lots of things, but if you’re on a (penicillin) antibiotic, it’s always blamed,” Weber told Global News.
Weber is the director of drug testing at the Drug Safety Clinic at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre where they test thousands of patients a year to see if they are actually allergic to penicillin or other medications. Weber and her team have found that approximately 90 percent of patients who believe they are allergic to penicillin – are not.
Weber said there are many reasons for the confusion – during an allergic reaction or illness patients can break out in a rash – the cause could be a fever, bacteria, food, virus or other infection.
“Whether it was the (penicillin), or the virus, or the bacteria or the banana they ate, who knows?” said Weber.
The concern is penicillin is an important drug and not being able to administer it means patients may have to be treated with more toxic and less effective medications with more side effects, according to Weber.
“The truth of the matter is, when someone has a life threatening infection like meningitis (penicillin is) the drug to use and that (can be) lifesaving,” said Weber.
IF YOU WERE ALLERGIC AS A CHILD – YOU MAY NOT BE NOW
If you were told as a child you were allergic to penicillin you also should be checked, you may have grown out of the allergy, or never had it at all.
“About 80 per cent of people can lose their sensitivity within about 10 years. Can, it’s not absolute, so that is why they need to be tested,” said Weber.
Macfarlane said he is relieved that he can still be treated with penicillin, understanding its effectiveness, and he has advice for others: “get yourself tested. The worst thing that can happen is you can find out you are allergic.”
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