The heads of the Israeli Association for Allergy and Clinical Immunology addressed a position paper to the managers of the four health insurance funds in Israel with an urgent demand: act to remove the incorrect labeling "allergic to penicillin" from many of your insured.
Most of the labeling in Israel of an allergy to antibiotics from the penicillin family, are caused by various side effects, or an eruption on the background of viral diseases, and not due to real, or life-threatening, allergic reactions.
Penicillin is an antibiotic substance, which for nearly 100 years, has been considered effective for killing bacteria, treating inflammations and preventing infections in injuries, burns and various injuries.
The incorrect overdiagnosis of penicillin allergy has a heavy health and financial cost. The labeling: "allergic to penicillin", affects the considerations in adjusting the antibiotic treatment to the patient or the injured, and requires finding medicinal alternatives, and thus there are quite a few problems.
The price in the field: treatment is less good and not immediate
Often, this leads to a delay in medical treatment, due to the confusion regarding the alternative drug treatment. Also, the alternative drugs are usually less effective than penicillin, and ironically - are accompanied by a higher incidence of side effects and the creation of resistant strains of bacteria. Patients with a label of penicillin allergy suffer more frequently from medical complications, which lead to prolonged hospitalizations, and even an increase in mortality. In addition, the use of alternative and more expensive drugs significantly burdens the system.
The heads of the Israeli Allergy and Clinical Immunology Association this week sent a position paper to the managers of the four health insurance funds in Israel, in which they call for practical steps to be taken to change the phenomenon: to work to reduce the number of insured people who are falsely defined as allergic to penicillin.
In the position paper, the heads of the union claim that until now the removal of the "penicillin allergy" label required a referral to allergy centers in hospitals, but the lines are very long (an average wait of about a year and a half), the allergy service is limited or lacking in many of the hospitals in Israel, and as a result, many of the country's citizens do not Get an answer and remain, without justification, under a wrong definition of penicillin allergy.
This is how you can simplify the removal of the "allergic to penicillin" label
The position paper details how, instead of referring patients to allergy clinics in hospitals, it is possible to rule out mislabeling of penicillin allergy in the community, and this in cases where it is a low-risk challenge, and subject to the approval of a doctor specializing in allergy and immunology. The provocations must be performed by a doctor skilled in the treatment of anaphylactic reactions, and in a place adapted to the treatment of such reactions.
In the position paper, the heads of the union call on the box office managers to open centers to carry out challenges in the community, and to increase the availability of allergy services in the community, so that the mislabeling of penicillin allergy can be removed on a large scale.
The allergists call on the Ministry of Health to increase the availability of allergy services and allergy units in hospitals, where more complex cases will be referred, and where it will be possible to train the next generation of doctors specializing in allergy and clinical immunology, which are currently lacking in the system.