Can there be an allergy after antibiotics? Not only “maybe”, but also occurs quite often. Of course, in most cases we are talking about minor dermatological manifestations, which practically do not bring discomfort to the patient, however, in some patients a really very strong reaction may occur that threatens life in the absence of timely and adequate treatment.
What antibiotics can cause allergies
Allergies after a course of antibiotics are common. An adverse reaction to taking medications or a certain sensitivity to some of their groups can occur at any age. In addition, all antibiotics have a large list of contraindications and side effects, among which allergy is also mentioned. Most antibacterial drugs are strong allergens, which should be taken only under supervision and as directed by a doctor.
The most common are amoxicillin and penicillin. These antibiotics can cause a strong and rapidly developing allergic reaction. To accurately avoid adverse reactions, you should replace these drugs with safer substances. As a rule, an allergy to penicillin and amoxicillin occurs between the ages of twenty to fifty years.
Some patients have a predisposition to allergies. The treatment of such groups of patients is often accompanied by edema, fever, skin rash and other unpleasant symptoms. Most often, such reactions occur after treatment with penicillin group drugs or sulfonamides. Medicines from other groups can also cause an adverse reaction, but it was found that anaphylactic shock (the most severe manifestation of an allergy) is usually provoked by antibiotics from the penicillin group.
Causes of an allergic reaction
There is no single and well-established cause of an allergic reaction in patients with certain drugs. However, it has been established that the following risk factors provoke hypersensitivity:
- the presence of concomitant diseases (cytomegalovirus, HIV \ AIDS, gout, mononucleosis, lymphocytic leukemia, cancer, and the like);
- the presence of an allergy to something else (house dust, pollen, animal hair, and so on);
- repeated courses of treatment with the same drug;
- high doses of the drug;
- genetic predisposition.
In antibacterial drugs, there are protein compounds, which the immune system responds to. An adverse reaction to antibiotics is a serious pathology, so self-medication is unacceptable and very dangerous. Depending on the characteristics of an individual organism, a reaction can develop within one to three hours to a day.
Symptoms of an Allergy to Antibiotics
Clinically, an allergy after taking antibiotics is manifested both by local signs and by general symptoms affecting the entire body. The latter reactions are more characteristic of middle-aged people, although in children and the elderly, allergies can also be very pronounced.
Local symptoms of adverse reaction
Most often, local reactions are manifested by a rash on the skin and other dermatological manifestations. Allergy after antibiotics (photo of symptoms on the skin below) often manifests itself in the form of urticaria. Multiple spots of red color appear on the skin, which in some cases merge into one big one. The spots itch, it feels higher than the surrounding healthy skin.
Quincke's edema is swelling that occurs in a certain area of the patient's body (larynx, scrotum, labia). It is accompanied by redness, a feeling of fullness, itching. Allergies to the skin after antibiotics are accompanied by a rash, which can be of different sizes and localizations. Specks can be located on the arms, back, stomach, face, or throughout the body.
If allergies begin after antibiotics, photosensitization may be characteristic. In this case, itching and redness occurs on areas of the body exposed to sunlight. Vesicles or bullae filled with a clear liquid may appear.
Common manifestations
Common allergy symptoms after antibiotics include anaphylactic reaction, serum-like syndrome, Stevens-Johnson syndrome, Lyell, drug fever, intoxication.
Anaphylactic shock is characteristic for severe allergies. A reaction develops immediately after taking the medicine (maximum thirty minutes). The condition is manifested by increased blood pressure, difficulty breathing due to swelling of the larynx, itching and hyperthermia, the presence of a rash on the skin, heart failure.
Serum sickness develops one to three weeks after taking an antibacterial drug. Such a syndrome is characterized by high body temperature, pain and aching joints, enlarged lymph nodes, rashes. Urticaria and Quincke's edema occur. There is a violation of the functions of the cardiovascular system: shortness of breath appears with a slight load, chest pain, tachycardia, general weakness. Anaphylactic shock is a complication of the disease.
Allergies after antibiotics in an adult may be accompanied by drug fever. Typically, a complex of symptoms develops a week after the start of therapy and resolves a maximum of two to three days after discontinuation of the drug. With repeated use of the same antibiotic, fever may develop within a few hours. The main symptoms are a significant increase in body temperature, bradycardia, itching, rashes on the skin.
Drug fever is characterized by an increase in the number of eosinophils and leukocytes in the blood (found with a sufficiently large number of diseases) with a decrease in platelets. The latter is complicated by problems with stopping bleeding and increased bleeding.
Lyell's syndrome is extremely rare. The condition is characterized by the formation of large-sized bubbles filled with liquid on the skin. When they burst, huge wound surfaces are exposed, die off, infectious complications often join. Stevens-Johnson syndrome is manifested by skin rashes, mucosal changes, high fever.
But allergies after antibiotics are not always so severe. Often, the complication is limited only by local symptoms.
First aid for anaphylactic shock
First aid for severe symptoms of anaphylactic shock is carried out immediately. It is necessary to cancel the drug, call the ambulance. You can inject adrenaline. The patient is given a large amount of fluid to maintain balance in the body. To prevent choking, you need to lay the patient on a hard surface and turn his head to the side. If the medicine that caused the shock was administered intramuscularly, ice is applied to the injection site to reduce the penetration of the drug into the body. Doctors can gradually deliver saline to a vein to reduce the concentration of the antibiotic.
Diagnostic measures
If an allergy occurs after antibiotics, what should I do? Diagnostic measures will help establish the exact cause of the adverse condition and the predisposition to the presence of allergic reactions. To do this, standard methods are used.
For allergies, skin tests are done after antibiotics. Drops are put on the skin of the forearm with presumptive antibacterial drugs that caused an adverse reaction, make small cuts. After the result is evaluated. In the presence of any changes, hypersensitivity is present. A blood test for immunoglobulin E shows the specific antibiotic to which a reaction has occurred.
Antibiotic Allergy Treatment
It is only necessary to treat allergies after antibiotics under the supervision of a doctor, because in complex cases there is a risk of rapid development of life-threatening conditions. Obviously, the resulting antibiotic is canceled. The medicine must be replaced with a suitable one, but from a different group.
Additionally, the patient is prescribed medications to relieve general and local symptoms. Desensitization is carried out, that is, a medicine for which the patient is hypersensitive, is administered with small doses, the dosage is gradually brought to the necessary.
Drug treatment
Allergy treatment after antibiotics is carried out with antihistamines in the form of ointments and tablets. Most often, patients are prescribed “Cetrin,” “Loratadine,” or “Lorano.”
“Loratadine” has antipruritic and anti-allergic effects. It begins to act thirty minutes after administration, and the positive effect persists for a day. The medicine is not addictive. It is necessary to take inside one tablet once a day. There are practically no side effects. Some patients may experience vomiting or dry mouth. Contraindication is hypersensitivity to “Loratadine” and the lactation period.
Cetrin is an antihistamine for systemic use. It is used for allergic reactions, urticaria, Quincke's edema, allergic rhinitis. Take regardless of the meal, drink one glass of clean water. One tablet is enough once a day. Children under 12 years of age should be given half a tablet twice a day. Elderly patients (in the absence of kidney disease) dose adjustment is not required.
Enterosorbents, which contribute to the rapid removal of the allergen from the body, are quite effective drugs in the treatment of allergies after taking antibiotics. “Activated carbon”, “Polysorb”, “Enterosgel” can help.
Coal is taken at the rate of one tablet per 10 kg of weight. “Enterosgel” absorbs toxic substances, harmful bacteria and viruses, is excreted from the body in seven hours. The effectiveness of the drug is clinically proven. The remedy helps with intestinal disorders, severe systemic diseases, allergies and other pathologies that cause severe intoxication of the body.
Polysorb is taken as a solution. The powder must be mixed with a quarter or half a glass of water. The average recommended dosage for adults is 3 grams of the drug (this is one tablespoon “with a slide”), for children it is optimal to give 1 gram of “Polysorb” (approximately a teaspoon “with a slide”). For chronic allergies, take three times a day. The course of therapy lasts 10-14 days.
Folk recipes for the elimination of a rash
Traditional medicine offers several ways to get rid of skin rashes. The simplest and most affordable is the treatment with medicinal herbs, for example, yarrow, lemon balm, valerian, nettle or hawthorn. Broth need to moisten the affected areas two or three times a day. One tablespoon of dry grass is added to a glass of water. To prepare a medicinal decoction, ten minutes is enough to insist the composition in a water bath.
Thirty minutes before a meal, you can take one teaspoon of celery juice. Juice is prepared only from a fresh plant. You can use a juicer or grate the plant on a fine grater and squeeze. Tea can be made from hawthorn, but it must be infused for thirty minutes. Take a composition of 50 ml twenty minutes before a meal. The course of such treatment is two weeks.
To minimize allergy symptoms when taking antibiotics, you need to strengthen the immune system. To do this, you should adjust the diet, take multivitamin complexes prescribed by a doctor, use alternative recipes to block the adverse reaction of the body.
Allergy after antibiotics in a child
Children are a special group of patients, but an allergic reaction to antibacterial drugs in childhood is easier than in adults. Severe symptoms, complications or systemic manifestations are extremely rare. Usually, with allergies after antibiotics, the child is characterized only by skin reactions in the form of a rash. Such symptoms almost do not bother.
If there is an allergy after antibiotics, what should I do? Need to cancel the drug. With the severity of manifestations, an antihistamine drug is prescribed. In some cases, hormones are needed. As a rule, therapy (except for drug withdrawal) is limited to the appointment of ointments to eliminate symptoms on the skin, a hypoallergenic diet. Bathing is recommended only in the shower, because the rash worsens from prolonged exposure to water.
A special diet for allergies
For allergies after antibiotics, a special diet is recommended. To strengthen the immune system, it is advisable to include in the diet more foods containing a rich composition of vitamins, fruits are especially useful (unless, of course, there is no reaction to them). It is useful to use fermented milk products that will restore the digestive system, whose work is disrupted by the use of antibacterial agents.
For any form of allergy, it is recommended to eat cereals, lean meats, green peas, zucchini, apples, pears, whole wheat flour, mild cheese, ghee, cereal bread. It is necessary to limit pasta, bread from higher flour, cottage cheese, sour cream and yoghurts with various additives, lamb, semolina, berries. At a minimum, you should eat onions and garlic, carrots, beets.
We'll have to give up spicy and spicy dishes, sweet soda, coffee and cocoa, chocolate. It is necessary to exclude from the menu fried, too salty, smoked dishes, fish and seafood. It is not recommended to eat allergenic fruits and berries, citrus fruits, ketchup, mayonnaise, honey and nuts.
How to replace antibiotics
As a rule, an allergy occurs to a particular drug or group of drugs. In this case, the attending physician will replace the antibacterial agent with a similar one according to the mechanism of action, but a different composition. It is worth switching to tetracyclines, aminoglycosides, macrolides and so on. But it is very important that it is unacceptable to prescribe medications on your own, especially with antibiotics. With a strong reaction or pronounced sensitivity to a large number of different antibacterial drugs, phytotherapy is indicated.
Prevention of an allergic reaction
The most important rule is to completely abandon self-diagnosis and self-medication. You need to consult a doctor yourself for an appointment for an allergy check, if such a diagnostic procedure has not been performed previously. In addition, the next of kin should learn about the presence of an adverse reaction to some medications. If this is the case, then it is necessary to warn the attending physician. There is a chance that there is a chronic predisposition. The most common antihistamines should be in your home medicine cabinet in order to block the adverse reaction of the immune system in time.
So, an allergy to antibiotics is a potentially dangerous condition, which without fail requires a consultation with the attending physician and replacement of the drug. In some cases, urgent help of qualified doctors is needed. In the future, treatment will have to be carried out with suitable antibacterial drugs, and herbal medicine is also used.