{"id":274481,"date":"2025-11-10T15:55:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-10T15:55:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/274481\/"},"modified":"2025-11-10T15:55:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T15:55:12","slug":"b-c-allergist-working-to-combat-false-penicillin-allergy-diagnoses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/274481\/","title":{"rendered":"B.C. allergist working to combat false penicillin allergy diagnoses"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Text<\/p>\n

Listen to this article<\/p>\n

Estimated 3 minutes<\/p>\n

The audio version of this article is generated by text-to-speech, a technology based on artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n

Most people who are diagnosed with a penicillin allergy don\u2019t actually have one, according to a B.C. allergist.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dr. Tiffany Wong, co-lead of the penicillin de-labelling project, has developed a tool for health-care professionals to assess and identify if patients who think they have a penicillin allergy are actually at low risk of having one.\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to the B.C. Centre for Disease Control, about 10 per cent of people report having an allergy to penicillin \u2014 but fewer than one per cent actually have a true allergy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Another study<\/a> found doctors were able to give penicillin safely to over 80 per cent of people who thought they were allergic.<\/p>\n

\"TwoAround 90 per cent of people who believe they have a penicillin allergy don’t have one, according to the B.C. Centre for Disease Control. (Terry Roberts\/CBC)<\/p>\n

Wong says misdiagnosis is common because certain symptoms that are mistaken for a penicillin allergy are often caused by the infection itself.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A common scenario Wong sees in her practice is a child getting a rash while using antibiotics \u2014and the rash is attributed to the antibiotics as opposed to the initial infection.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have years of research and data looking at children and adults … and then we go back and challenge them with the antibiotics, give them a test dose, and over 90 per cent of them can tolerate it,\u201d Wong said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She says this is a problem because penicillin is the most effective medication for many common ailments, including ear infections and pneumonia.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Alternative antibiotics are usually less effective, more expensive, and can sometimes lead to serious side effects.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBy the time people are sick and need an antibiotic, that’s not a good time to do a test dose,\u201d said Wong.\u00a0<\/p>\n

No need to see an allergist<\/p>\n

Wong says the wait to see an allergist in the province can be up to two years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Those who are unsure about a possible penicillin allergy should ask their general practitioner as an assessment can be performed during a doctor\u2019s visit.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Assessments can also be done by pharmacists, nurses, and nurse practitioners.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t need to see an allergist in order to be de-labelled because most people aren\u2019t actually allergic,\u201d said Wong.\u00a0<\/p>\n

LISTEN | Most people who believe they are allergic to penicillin aren’t, says allergist:<\/p>\n

Daybreak South6:16A B.C. allergist says 90 per cent of people who believe they are allergic to penicillin actually aren’t<\/p>\n

B.C. allergist, Dr. Tiffany Wong is working to remove false penicillin allergy diagnosis from people’s health records, because 90 per cent of people who believe they are allergic to the drug – actually aren’t.<\/p>\n

She has also developed a patient-led assessment tool<\/a> where people can check if they are at low risk of having a penicillin allergy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The project began 10 years ago, and she says that while there is greater awareness and more health-care professionals participating, there is still a long way to go.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have finally been able to get the snowball rolling,\u201d said Wong.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cUntil we can actually practise primary prevention, which is not erroneously diagnosing people with allergy in the first place, it\u2019s going to be a while.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 3 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by text-to-speech, a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":274482,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[49,48,84,392],"class_list":{"0":"post-274481","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-healthcare"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=274481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274481\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/274482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}