I am allergic to penicillin and I have pink eye. My kids had it and the dr just told me if I were to get it to take it too. Should I take ofloxacin if I'm allergic to penicillin? I don't know if it contains it or not. I don't want to take the chance if it does contain it for the possibility of it killing me

It's fine to take if you are allergic to penicillin. The ones you need to avoid end in -cillin, like amoxycillin for example. This is not the same kind of antibiotic.

Are you allergic to any other antibiotics?

Ok thank you. Not to my knowledge. Ive taken other antibiotics without penicillin without a reaction so I believe its just ones with penicillin

This is not a penicillin based antibiotic, so you should be fine.

OK thank you very much.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by J_9

It's fine to take if you are allergic to penicillin. The ones you need to avoid end in -cillin, like amoxycillin for example. This is not the same kind of antibiotic.

Are you allergic to any other antibiotics?

---

Drugs that end in -cillin aren't the only drugs to avoid. Penicillins are a member of the Beta-Lactam antibiotic class and there are four types of antibiotic classes in that general class, and it is safest to avoid all of those if someone is allergic to penicillin. That includes: penicillins (amoxicillin, penicillin, ampicillin, piperacillin), cephalosporins (cephalexin, cefdinir, etc), monobactamas (aztreonam), and carbapenems (imipenem, meropenem, ertapenem).

So while you were correct that oxofloxacin is okay to take if someone is allergic to penicillin (because it is in the fluoroquinolone class of antibiotics), it is not correct to say that only antibiotics that end in -cillin are to be avoided. If someone is unsure they should contact their pharmacist, and that should have been recommended to them if you aren't 100% sure either.

Thank you. That's very true. I normally do call the pharmacy but they were closed and I wanted to know at that moment