What medications are available if you have a penicillin allergy?

Answer 1

septimin doesnt have any penisilin

Quite a few. Just for example, Sulfa-based antibiotics can be used, as well as the group of "cyclines" that started with tetracycline many years ago. On the new side, Oxazolidone class antibiotics are now approved for consumption as are the very new lipopeptide antibiotics like daptomycin.

It depends alot on the infection. Probably the most common substitutes include erythromycin, clindamycin, or a cephalosporin (while related, has less than 15% cross reactivity with PCNs for first generation cephalosporins - even less for higher generations). If the reaction is not a severe one (respiratory distress, throat swelling, etc), cephalosporins are probably the best choice.

Again, it depends alot on the type of infection and where it was acquired.

Answer 2

There are different classes of antibiotics. Many people allergic to Penicillin itself can also be allergic to other drugs in that class (Penicillin), as well as the cephalosporins (a class very similar to the penicillins). Only a few antibiotics are in the sulfa class, so that may not be a big deal at all.

Even in your case, there are still quite a few antibiotic choices left. There is the fluoroquinolone class. This class includes ciprofloxacin (Cipro), levofloxacin (Levaquin) and the newer drugs moxifloxacin (Avelox) and gatifloxacin (Tequin). Also the tetracycline class and the macrolides erythromycin (E-mycin), clarithromycin (Biaxin) and azithromycin (Zithromax). There are also other choices from other classes that should be safe for you to take.

Answer 3

I believe that most doctors nowadays prescribe amoxicillin instead of penicillin for tonsillitis.

Answer 4

Zithromax