{"id":936055,"date":"2026-10-21T20:10:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-21T20:10:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/936055\/"},"modified":"2026-10-21T20:10:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-21T20:10:13","slug":"majority-of-australians-who-report-penicillin-allergy-not-truly-allergic-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/936055\/","title":{"rendered":"Majority of Australians who report penicillin allergy not truly allergic | Health"},"content":{"rendered":"

The majority of Australians who report a penicillin allergy are not truly allergic, prompting the peak body for immunologists to change its guidelines in a bid to reduce hospital stays and tackle antimicrobial resistance.<\/p>\n

Penicillin, one of the most commonly prescribed antibiotics in Australia, was thought to cause allergies in 10% of Australians, or about 2.8 million people.<\/p>\n

But the latest evidence<\/a> shows up to 90% of those reporting a penicillin allergy<\/a> do not have one.<\/p>\n

The changes to the Australasian Society of Clinical Immunology and Allergy guidelines, which have been published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology<\/a>, give the first peer-reviewed and updated advice to GPs and other health professionals about how to diagnose and manage the allergy, and when to refer to a specialist.<\/p>\n

Prof Michaela Lucas, a clinical immunologist, said misdiagnosis occurs for a number of reasons, with people sometimes experiencing a rash or nausea after taking penicillin and assuming it is an allergy, or doctors wanting to be cautious and recording side effects as allergies.<\/p>\n

Other people were told by a parent that they suffered a reaction when they were a child and carry that diagnosis through to adulthood without questioning it, she said, while some side effects may also be due to the illness itself and not the medicine.<\/p>\n

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Penicillin is an important antibiotic option, as it treats common infections, said Lucas, a professor at the University of Western Australia\u2019s medical school.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is also what is known as a narrow spectrum antibiotic, which means it is targeted at the bug specifically causing the infection,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce you have to avoid narrow classes of drugs, you have to use broader spectrum antibiotics which have a bigger impact of your gut microbiome as they are associated with also killing good bacteria and allowing superbugs to come in and take residency.\u201d<\/p>\n

Superbugs are strains of bacteria that are highly resistant to multiple standard treatments.<\/p>\n

\u201cAntimicrobial resistance matters beyond the individual patient, because resistant bacteria can spread between people and through communities,\u201d Lucas said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf someone develops a serious infection that is resistant to several antibiotics, doctors can be left with very limited treatment options.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr Nick Cooling, the chair of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners\u2019 allergy special interest group, said the guidelines were based on the latest evidence, and a consensus report from a range of medical specialities.<\/p>\n

He hopes the guidance will cut health costs in the community and ease the burden on immunologists.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that people who have a penicillin allergy label go to hospital more,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThey spend longer in hospital, and they also cost the system more.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is because of more treatments needing to be trialled, side-effects from those treatments, and delays in finding alternative treatments.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ability to clarify that with these patients will reduce hospital costs but also the whole health system cost,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need all health professionals to be involved in this because if we\u2019re going to de-label some 2.8 million people in Australia, you can\u2019t just rely on the 300 immunologists to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cooling urged affected patients to raise the question of a penicillin allergy with their GP, and with cases where the potential risk of harm is low, doctors could give their patient penicillin and monitor for symptoms.<\/p>\n

But he warned: \u201cNo one should try taking penicillin themselves to find out whether they are allergic. Antibiotics should only be taken when prescribed for the individual taking them.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Tammy Prescino, the issue of penicillin allergy is a very real concern. She welcomes the changes, with her 70-year-old mother and 12-year-old daughter both diagnosed.<\/p>\n

Prescino worries that if her mother were to get an infection she could miss out on the benefits of penicillin. She plans to see a doctor and to get her family reassessed.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause if she doesn\u2019t have the penicillin allergy, then we wouldn\u2019t have to withhold medicine \u2026 that could help her,\u201d Prescino said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The majority of Australians who report a penicillin allergy are not truly allergic, prompting the peak body for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":936056,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[64,63,137],"class_list":["post-936055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/936055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=936055"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/936055\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/936056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=936055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=936055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=936055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}