Drug allergy
Drug allergy in children can present in different ways as immediate or delayed reaction with varying severity from mild symptoms that resemble a viral illness to severe ones.
In kids’ allergy clinic we offer the following service:
- assessment and de-labelling of penicillin allergy with the use of triage system. If applicable, we will then proceed to a staged provocation test to the suspected antibiotic.
There have been recent studies that showed that the de-labelling can be delivered in primary care.
We follow same protocol to assess suspected allergy to other antibiotics and NSAIDS (ibuprofen, paracetamol).
Studies in b-lactams have shown that 9/10 children do not have a true drug allergy and sadly many of them are labelled as such for life. This can cause unnecessary limitations in antibiotic choice as well as increase in resistance to antibiotics through the unnecessary use of wider spectrum antibiotics.
References:
- Anjum Grewal, Nicola Jay. Outpatient and primary care direct provocation challenges for antibiotic allergy in children. Arch Dis Childhood.2024 Dec 13;110(1):23-25
