The Penicillin Allergy on Your Chart Is Probably Wrong

Fewer than one in twenty people labeled allergic actually are, and carrying the wrong note can push you toward stronger antibiotics you do not need.

Look at your medical record and you may find two words that have followed you for years: penicillin allergy. Maybe a parent told you that you broke out in a rash as a child. Maybe no one remembers where the note came from. Either way it sits on your chart, and because of it your doctor reaches for a different antibiotic every time you get sick, avoiding one of the oldest, cheapest and most effective families of drugs available.

Roughly 30 million Americans carry a penicillin allergy label, yet fewer than 5% have a true allergy, according to the Infectious Diseases Society of America. The American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology puts it another way: more than 90% of patients who have a documented penicillin allergy in their records can safely take penicillin once they have been properly evaluated.

The reminder comes now because September 28 is National Penicillin Allergy Day, marked on the anniversary of Sir Alexander Fleming's discovery of penicillin in 1928.