Welcome To 'Ask A Doctor'. Please Type Your Qumy Estion

Posted on Sat, 16 Feb 2019

Question: Welcome to 'Ask a Doctor'. Please type your qumy estion here...my son had open surgery to remove his spleen which had burst in August and is on penicillin twice a day to fight infection . He has a mild chest infection and the medical official has prescribed amoxicillin 500mg 3 times a day for I believe 7 days . The reason I am contacting you is she said to not take the penicillin whilst he is taking the amoxicillin and I am concerned that it will open him up to being vulnerable to infection as he has a very weak immune system now .

Answered by Dr. Olgeta Xhufka (58 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
No need to take amoxicillin.

Detailed Answer:
Hello dear, welcome to Ask a doctor service.
I read your query and here is my advice.

First of all I don't understand why the doctor prescribed amoxicillin to a person who is currently taking penicillin.
Both penicillin and amoxicillin are antibiotics of the class b-lactam antibiotics.
They are both sensitive to the same group of bacteria, staphylococcus and streptococcus.
So I think that there is no need to start taking amoxicillin while in penicillin and for more no need to stop penicillin.
So you son can continue to take penicillin and don't take amoxicillin at all.

Hope I have answered the question.
Let me know if I can assist you further.

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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Vaishalee Punj