I have just been watching a Bruce Lee documentary and his wife said his death was due to an unforeseen reaction which was as unlikely as an allergic reaction to Penecillin. I’m allergic to Penecillin. My brother, who is adopted and therefore no genetic relation to myself is also allergic to Penecillin.
My question is how likely is it to have an allergy to Penecillin? I always thought that while my condition was not common, it was not rare either. Yet the way she phrased her statement was indicative of Penecillin allergies being very rare. Please could someone give me some statistics as to the commonness (I know it’s not a word but my brain is not working on full cylinders this late) of such an allergy?
I work in a hospital and I would guess that maybe 1 in 40 have a penicillin allergy. You can always tell who they are 'cause they got these big pink bracelts on that say “PENICILLIN ALLERGY” in thick black marker.
Although I suspect the true frequency is at the lower end, this article asserts that there is a 0.7 to 10% prevalence of true, serious allergy (anaphylaxis) to penicillin.
Note that most allergic reactions are NOT life threatening. Still, who wants to find out the hard way?
Yes. I think it reflects the definition of true allergy versus genuine anaphylaxis versus obviously non-allergic phenomena (eg. diarrhea, vomiting, etc.)
One possibly unusual thing about penicillin allergy is that it can take years to show up. I had gallons of the stuff for recurring strep infections when I was a child. Then, one time I was given it for something as a young teenager at developed hives. Since then, I’ve had to use alternative antibiotics.
My doctor told me that a person can *become * allergic to penicillin. At least that’s what seemed to happen to me, at age 50+, after having had it lots of times for sinus infections with no side effects. He also said that the next time it would probably be more serious than the full-body hives I got. Some time after that I remembered that my father had been allergic to it, a fact that was discovered when he was administered it for the first time when he was in his 20s.
When I was 12, I had a streptococcal infection straight from the Nether Regions (and I don’t mean Coldfire’s homeland!). Initial treatment was with penicillin – heavy doses – and I developed a sensitivity to it. I had been treated with penicillin before with no noticeable effects, and I’ve had small doses twice since, likewise – but the heavy repeated doses appeared to invoke a sensitivity, which I’ve duly reported on my medical histories.
Personal anecdote having nothing to do with the rarity of allergies – but useful data, I hope.
We had a horse that had been getting penicillin regularily for weeks, for a difficult infection. Then several months later, he got a cut, and after cleaning it, the vet decided to give him a shot of penicillin to prevent infection.
He had an extreme reaction to it, within seconds! The vet’s assistant had to immediately give him a shot to counteract the penicillin, while the vet injected something (adrenalin) right into or near his heart with a big needle.
It’s really scary to see a healthy, 3/4-ton stallion literally dropping to his knees and dying right in front of you, within seconds of receiving a normal shot of penicillin!
And the vet aid this was a smaller dose than he had been receiving twice a week a few months before. Clearly, this allergy developed after a heavy regime of penicillin treatments. The vet indicated that this was known to happen in some cases.
