sulfazine- I am allergic to trimethoprim so will I be allergic to sulfazine?

[lindyloo2018]

sulfazine- I am allergic to trimethoprim so will I be allergic to sulfazine?I get nasty mouth ulcers with the antibiotic trimethoprim, so I was wondering if I would also be allergic to sulfazine ?I wondered if anyone else had the same allergic response to trimethoprim.both trimethoprim and sulfazine are 'sulphur' drugsplease advise asap many thanks

[Jackie1947]

Do you mean Sulfasalizine which is an anti inflammatory?, No association with Trimethoprim as it s an antibiotic. I take Sulfasalizine and I can't take Trimethoprim no problem

[lindyloo2018 in reply to Jackie1947]

yes sorry I mean Sulfasalizine, please tell me how much Sulfasalizine you take and if with any other dmards ? many thanks

[Jackie1947 in reply to lindyloo2018]

500mg Sulfasalizine 3 twice daily. I inject Etanacept (Benipali) weekly which is a biologic. Paracetamol.

[helixhelix]

although they are often combined together they are very different drugs. Make sure that doctors who are prescribing for you know about ypur reaction to trimethoprim (mouth ulcers are more often a side effect than an allergy)

[nomoreheels]

The antibiotic component of sulfasalazine is sulfapyridine, a sulfonamide antibiotic. Trimethoprim isn't a true sulfonomide, though it works in a similar way. As such you may potentially have the same side effect so it's something I’d mention to your Rheumy, even though it's not listed as a med/antibiotic you need to make your prescriber aware of.

One thing which may be a positive is we start on low dose SSZ & titrate up so if you do start it & once you go up in dose if you find you're being intolerant & have mouth ulcers then you know for sure it's not the best DMARD for you. Having said that mouth ulcers are only listed as a rare side effect of SSZ so you'd be unfortunate if you do have them.

[lindyloo2018 in reply to nomoreheels]

many thanks that's useful

[Leics]

I’m so severely allergic to trimethoprim I ended up having a 6 hour fit and being rushed to hospital in an ambulance by the time I was stabilised I was on the verge of a heart attack. However I took sulphasalazine for about 3 years without a problem or side effect it really helped my joints. I only had to stop it when it no longer decided to be effective. So being allergic to antibiotics and I have several severe reactions to different ones doesn’t necessarily mean that all sulpha meds will have the same reaction.

[oldtimer2]

There is some cross sensitivity unfortunately. But it's difficult to know unless you try it! I did and I was allergic to both - lovely widespread itchy blotchy rash and feeling terrible....