What is it about?
This work inspects routine primary care records of patients with and without penicillin allergy on their record. Those with an allergy record are more often older, female, and have more comorbidities. After matching for such factors, it was seen that health outcomes, such as antibiotic treatment failure and acquisition of antibiotic resistant infections such as MRSA are more frequent for those with antibiotic allergy.
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Why is it important?
The study of penicillin allergy is important since it influences which antibiotics a patient is treated with. Some are less effective, and hence treatment failure is more common. Some can lead to the development of MRSA and CDiff infections. It has been reported that penicillin allergy is very often recorded when patients do not have a real allergy. Testing would enable the prescription of more effective antibiotics and reduce the risk of antimicrobial resistance.
Perspectives
The findings from this work are based on large primary care database with 2.3 million patients which makes them substantial. It encourages further research on penicillin allergy testing which is currently funded and underway. There is opportunity to change primary care practice, where 80% of antibiotic prescribing occurs, and restrict the spread of antimicrobial resistance.
Robert West
University of Leeds
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: ‘Warning: allergic to penicillin’: association between penicillin allergy status in 2.3 million NHS general practice electronic health records, antibiotic prescribing and health outcomes, Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, April 2019, Oxford University Press (OUP),
DOI: 10.1093/jac/dkz127.
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