Allergic to Penicillin? You May Have Been Misdiagnosed

New allergy test can reveal true penicillin allergies

Have you been avoiding penicillin because of allergy worries? Turns out, you may have been misdiagnosed, or you may have outgrown your allergy years ago.

Up until recently, allergists had no reliable standardized test for penicillin allergy. Instead, people were diagnosed as allergic to penicillin based on symptoms like vomiting, diarrhea, or rash—all of which could simply be adverse drug reactions rather than true allergic reactions.

This old approach to penicillin allergy diagnosis has led to up to 10 percent of the US population to believe they cannot take penicillin. The development of new testing methods has revealed that only a small fraction of these individuals are actually allergic to penicillin. According to recent research, about 50 percent of individuals who had a reaction to penicillin will no longer have relevant antibodies indicative of an allergy 5 years later. After 10 years this figure increases to 80 percent.

Because being labeled as allergic to penicillin restricts your doctors to prescribing alternative antibiotics, which may be less effective and have more side effects than penicillin, it is definitely wise to consider getting an allergy test to make sure this caution is actually justified.

How Penicillin Allergy Testing Works

The process of getting penicillin allergy testing is actually quite simple. First, you will get a skin test, in which a small, diluted dose of the allergen will be injected just under the surface of the skin. If no swelling results, you will then be given an oral challenge test—in other words you will take a dose of penicillin by mouth and then be monitored in your allergist’s office for 60 to 90 minutes to check for any sign of an allergic reaction. If you do not have any symptoms, you can safely take penicillin in the future.

This new method of penicillin testing uses materials that have been approved by the FDA and is considered a highly reliable method of revealing penicillin allergies.

Schedule Your Appointment Now

If you have been told you have a penicillin allergy—and especially you received your diagnosis many years ago—it is quite likely that you are not actually allergic at all. You should definitely find out for certain using allergy testing. At Allergy, Asthma & Immunology Medical Group, our experienced allergy doctors are equipped to administer penicillin allergy tests safely and interpret the results correctly. Schedule your appointment today to find out if your avoidance of penicillin is merited.