Below are the opening lines of a BBC news item and a comment from me. Full text here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-66934909
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'Millions of people wrongly believe they are allergic to penicillin, which could mean they take longer to recover after an infection, pharmacists say.
'About four million people in the UK have the drug allergy on their medical record - but when tested, 90% of them are not allergic, research suggests.
'The Royal Pharmaceutical Society says many people confuse antibiotic side-effects with an allergic reaction...'
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COMMENT (NPW): This is an example of a widespread and basic error in personal medical records. It results in all subsequent health workers to be misinformed about a non-existent penicillin allergy, with potential for death due to failure to provide the most appropriate antibiotic. It's interesting the Royal Pharmaceutical Society suggests it is largely a problem of 'many people confuse antibiotic side-effects with an allergic reaction'. This may well be so, but an astute and well-trained health worker should think twice about recording a patient as 'allergic to penicillin' on this basis. There is a problem here of lack of understanding among both patients and health workers.
It would be interesting to learn about parallel experience in other countries.
HIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is coordinator of HIFA (Healthcare Information For All), a global health community that brings all stakeholders together around the shared goal of universal access to reliable healthcare information. HIFA has 20,000 members in 180 countries, interacting in four languages and representing all parts of the global evidence ecosystem. HIFA is administered by Global Healthcare Information Network, a UK-based nonprofit in official relations with the World Health Organization. Email: neil@hifa.org
