side effects from Bactrim - Infectious Diseases Message Board

beanstock · 12-16-2008, 11:24 AM

I was recently hospitalized and put on IV antibiotics just in case I had MRSA. They didn't culture the skin since it was intact (possible redness/rash under the skin, post-sugery; on the other hand, it might have been simply the stages of recovery from surgery) and my WBC was normal, but they gave me several does of Vanc. Now they've sent me home on Bactrim and I've taken one dose and am having trouble breathing. Also feel light-headed, kind of weak. I called the doctor and have not taken a second dose, but I'm just wondering, has anyone else had a reaction like this to Bactrim?

jake22 · 12-20-2008, 02:02 AM

listen if you start getting a fever from this stuff or hives immediatly stop taking it and go see a doctor!!! i recently had an infection in my hand and they prescribed me septra or bactrim. about a week later i was covered and i mean extremely covered in hives and my body ached and i had a fever of almost 104!
i went to the doctor and they told me i had a very rare allergic reaction called stevens johnson syndrome. they gave me a high dosage shot of benadryl and gave me a crap load of a steriod called prednisone to suppress to allergic reaction. what stevens johnson does is your immune system starts attacking the outer layer of your skin and those red hives eventually turn into blisters and your skin literally begins falling off!!! most people with this condition have to go to a burn unit to be treated for weeks or sometimes months. and some people have extreme complications such as loss of hearing, heart problems, loss of eyesight or in some cases death. and to tell you the truth this is NOT as rare of a condition as doctors say. believe me i had this condition last week and was very lucky to have it halted by the prednisone. but after researching it i have seen thousands of documented stevens johnson accounts as a direct result of people taking this drug. a 17 year old girl in texas recently just died of it. so IN MY OPINION THIS DRUG SHOULD BE PULLED OFF THE MARKET!!!! it has already been banned in the uk because of such bad effects. i just dont get it we live in a time were we have so many different types of anti biotics that can be a safe alternative to this one. well i guess its all one conspiracy to get us to pay drug companies more and more money. but seriously if you have any and i mean and bad effects go to the doctor because if caught early like mine this condition can be stoped before it gets bad. also you need to remember that septra, bactrim, trimethoprim are basically all the same drug but they are sulfa based. so if anyone has an allergic reaction to this drug they need to be aware that they can no longer take ANY medications that have sulfa in it. food products with sulfa as a preservative are fine. but just remember that all people react differently to medications so just be smart and listen to your body before rushing in to see a doctor

harka · 12-21-2008, 12:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jake22

listen if you start getting a fever from this stuff or hives immediatly stop taking it and go see a doctor!!! i recently had an infection in my hand and they prescribed me septra or bactrim. about a week later i was covered and i mean extremely covered in hives and my body ached and i had a fever of almost 104!
i went to the doctor and they told me i had a very rare allergic reaction called stevens johnson syndrome. they gave me a high dosage shot of benadryl and gave me a crap load of a steriod called prednisone to suppress to allergic reaction. what stevens johnson does is your immune system starts attacking the outer layer of your skin and those red hives eventually turn into blisters and your skin literally begins falling off!!! most people with this condition have to go to a burn unit to be treated for weeks or sometimes months. and some people have extreme complications such as loss of hearing, heart problems, loss of eyesight or in some cases death. and to tell you the truth this is NOT as rare of a condition as doctors say. believe me i had this condition last week and was very lucky to have it halted by the prednisone. but after researching it i have seen thousands of documented stevens johnson accounts as a direct result of people taking this drug. a 17 year old girl in texas recently just died of it. so IN MY OPINION THIS DRUG SHOULD BE PULLED OFF THE MARKET!!!! it has already been banned in the uk because of such bad effects. i just dont get it we live in a time were we have so many different types of anti biotics that can be a safe alternative to this one. well i guess its all one conspiracy to get us to pay drug companies more and more money. but seriously if you have any and i mean and bad effects go to the doctor because if caught early like mine this condition can be stoped before it gets bad. also you need to remember that septra, bactrim, trimethoprim are basically all the same drug but they are sulfa based. so if anyone has an allergic reaction to this drug they need to be aware that they can no longer take ANY medications that have sulfa in it. food products with sulfa as a preservative are fine. but just remember that all people react differently to medications so just be smart and listen to your body before rushing in to see a doctor

Jake, while I sympathize with you for your previous reaction to sulfa drugs, I disagree with you about how common the reaction is. Yes, there are 100s of documented cases of SJS with sulfa, but if you think of the millions and millions of doses of the drug which have been given since they first came out in the 40s it is very rare. Of course, in a 60 year span, you're going to have an accumulation of adverse events, and even something as innocuous as Bactrim will have a certain number of total adverse events in that long period.

Septra is one of our first-line agents now against the bacteria everyone on this board seems to be so afraid of--MRSA. Without Bactrim (Septra in Canada) it's one less drug to use against that infection. Additionally, you mention we have a large selection of antibiotics to choose from. I beg to differ there as well. We have a lot of antibiotics, but different antibiotics are aimed at different types of bugs. We are sorely lacking in antibiotics against the very resistant gram negative rods which are plaguing intensive care units worldwide. Additionally, hundreds of thousands of people with HIV are treated yearly with Bactrim/Septra for opportunistic infections such as Pneumocystis, which are treatable with other antibiotics, but which are less effective and have more toxicity.

To put this into perspective--aspirin, a drug we think is very benign causes thousands of adverse events IN A YEAR! More people suffer from the effects of gastrointestinal bleeding secondary to aspirin in one YEAR than the total number of cases of Stevens-Johnson syndrome EVER with sulfa drugs. So be careful what you say especially on the Healthboards where there are a LOT of Americans who are at risk of MRSA infections of which Septra/Bactrim is of the first line agents for use!

You say you were diagnosed with Stevens-Johnson syndrome. How did you not end up in the ICU? Did you have problem with the sloughing of the skin inside your mouth and stuff?

jake22 · 12-21-2008, 02:31 AM

well all allergic reactions effect people differently but i was very lucky to have a doctor that was quick to understand what it was and how to treat it. he gave me prednisone which blocks the immune system so in a sense we stopped my immune system from attacking my skin. also stevens johnson syndrome has verying levels of intensity i was very lucky to get a mild case of it. now on to the septra thing. this drug has been BANNED in the UK because it has had such bad effects. in all cases the side effects are worse than what the drug was prescribed to treat. now this may have been a rare condition about 20 years ago but since then the cases of reactions to this drug have risen at an alarming rate. i have spoken with a lady at the stevens johnson sydrome foundation and she told me that there have not been hundreds affected by this drug but thousands all in recent years. she also told me that allergic reactions to this drug run in familys so if you are allergic to any sulfa based medications for the love of god do not let any of your family members take them. they are going to appear on oprah in the next few weeks and soon to follow will be a class action lawsuit against the FDA for failure to give realistic and adequite information concerning this drug. another person just like me who doesnt have an allergy to anything and has never been sick a day in there life will be prescribed this drug for a cut on theyre hand, only they wont be as lucky as i am. now i dont think this drug should be pulled off the market entirely because it does do alot of good. but i think that it should be very limited and used only as a last resort to other antibiotics failing. Doctors should not be allowed to prescribe this drug on a wim because like i said, before this allergic reaction i had never been allergic to a single thing in my life.

harka · 12-21-2008, 10:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by beanstock

I was recently hospitalized and put on IV antibiotics just in case I had MRSA. They didn't culture the skin since it was intact (possible redness/rash under the skin, post-sugery; on the other hand, it might have been simply the stages of recovery from surgery) and my WBC was normal, but they gave me several does of Vanc. Now they've sent me home on Bactrim and I've taken one dose and am having trouble breathing. Also feel light-headed, kind of weak. I called the doctor and have not taken a second dose, but I'm just wondering, has anyone else had a reaction like this to Bactrim?

Beanstock,

It does sound like you've had an allergic reaction to the Bactrim and it's a good idea you stop it. Your allergic reaction is, however, different than the one jake22 is talking about. Yours is a different type of hypersensitivity reaction than what jake22 is talking about. For those of you who are familiar, Beanstock's is a type I hypersensitivity while jake's is a type IV hypersensitivity.

Jake, sorry, when I wrote 100, I meant 1000, but I do still stand by my statement about how infrequent SJS reactions with Bactrim are compared to the adverse effects of other medications. People on foundations like the SJS feel like they are helping people when in fact they can seriously hinder medical progress in the future. Anyway, I hope your rash is getting better. I understand what you are saying, but try to see the situation from another point of view. It's not as clear cut as you think.

Good evening gentlemen.