A trial supported by NIHR Leeds CRF into removing incorrect penicillin allergy labels on GP records could combat antibiotic resistance and save lives, an NIHR-funded clinical trial led by the University of Leeds has found.
Penicillins are first-choice antibiotics for many common infections, but more than one in 15 UK adults have a penicillin allergy label on their medical records. In the event of an infection, they will be prescribed alternative antibiotics which can be less effective or have more side effects. This can result in several prescriptions being issued to control the infection, which affects wellbeing and contributes to antimicrobial resistance.
The study published in the Lancet Primary Care, which was supported by NIHR Leeds Clinical Research Facility in Leeds, found that that almost nine in ten (88%) patients with a penicillin allergy label were not truly allergic after testing, and had their allergy label safely removed. More than 800 patients were included in the trial.
Verifying the accuracy of penicillin allergy labels could help patients to access more effective antibiotics, which is crucial as the threat of antimicrobial resistance to public health grows. The ALABAMA (ALlergy AntiBiotics And Microbial resistAnce) trial, coordinated by the University of Oxford Primary Care Clinical Trials Unit, was created to help find solutions for this issue.
Joint lead author Dr Jonathan Sandoe, Associate Clinical Professor in Microbiology in the University of Leeds School of Medicine and Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, said: “Antibiotics have been life-saving drugs since the late 1930s, but we are now in an era where microbes are evolving to resist the effects of current antibiotics. The global challenge of antibiotic resistance is causing people to die of common infections – so it is vital to find ways to improve how antibiotics are used. Assessing people with penicillin allergy labels is one way we can achieve this.”
Read the full story via the University of Leeds website