Penicillin Allergy Evaluations Are Safe, Feasible In STI Clinic Settings, Study Finds

Infectious Disease Advisor (4/11) reports, “In patients receiving care for gonorrhea or syphilis at a sexually transmitted infection (STI) clinic, a simple questionnaire can identify which patients with reported penicillin allergies are at low risk for allergy evaluation and help determine the safety of treatment with penicillin-class antibiotics.” According to a study published in Clinical Infectious Diseases, “nearly all (99%) patients who underwent penicillin allergy testing reported that the evaluation was helpful, and 95.3% characterized the evaluation as ‘very’ or ‘extremely’ helpful.”