What kind of antibiotics can a person with Stevens Johnson syndrome take when they have an respiratory infect.

Answer 1

Well...
Stevens Johnson Syndrome is a serious skin eruption that is usually in response to some medication taken (a severe reaction).
Once the reaction is taken care of and medication out of the system and the person completely recovered, they no longer have Stevens Johnson Syndrome.
However, if the same person took the same medication, they could again have a severe reaction and develop Stevens Johnson Syndrome yet again...or even have a worse reaction, potentially even dying.

The difficulty with answering your question is that every person is different. The vast majority of people can take any and all medications without developing Stevens Johnson. i.e. It is EXTREMELY rare. Except for dermatologists, the average doctor might see it 5 times in a lifetime (if that).

A person predisposed to Stevens Johnson Syndrome (i.e. they have had it before), should only avoid medications that they have that reaction too.

One person might react to one type of medication (sulfa drugs), but not to other types of drugs (penicillins). Another person might be exactly the opposite.

Therefore, the class of drugs that they have reacted to before should be avoided.

One of the most "common" (yet still very rare) medications often associated with SJS and used for respiratory infections would be Bactrim.

However, ANY of the medications used for ANY infection could potentially cause SJS in an individual...

I hope this is somewhat clear...

Answer 2

The above are more or less correct. SJS is a bizarre reaction that occurs to many drugs with extreme rarity, the exception is a seizure med called Lamotrigine which causes it somewhat more often. It's not contagious at all. And we really aren't perfectly sure what causes it. It's pretty damned rare. There's less than a hundred cases every year, and rarely a death. It's notable because it takes -forever- to kill you. People have walked around for weeks after developing the rash and inflammation before going to the hospital and still come out fine. It's painful, but with proper care to prevent infection, keep the body hydrated and all that, rarely fatal. There can be some scarring, but from the case reports I've seen, that's not especially common.