Many people have been told they are allergic to penicillin, amoxicillin, ampicillin, or Augmentin making these the most commonly reported drug allergies. 95% of the time they are not allergic. Why?
Over time, most people who are truly allergic will lose the allergy. In addition, most people who were reported to be allergic were never allergic. Often many people will develop an infection, and a ‘cillin’ is prescribed. Later a rash develops caused by the infection, and is incorrectly blamed on the ‘cillin.’
HOW CAN YOU DETERMINE IF I AM ‘CILLIN’ ALLERGIC?
We will “challenge” you with amoxicillin over a 3 hour period. First, you will ingest about 5% of a full dose and we will observe you for 30 minutes. If no reaction occurs, you will ingest about 20% of a full dose and wait another 30 minutes. If no reaction occurs, we'll give you the rest and observe you for two hours. If no reaction occurs, we will discharge you and instruct you to inform us if any reactions occur over the next couple days. If not, you will be considered non allergic!
If you react to the challenge, you should avoid cillin drugs and be treated with a different antibiotic.