Doctors sound the alarm about a current antibiotic taken by millions of people and associated with a certain number of deaths and extreme reactions.
Caught by around 3 million Americans, the trimethoprime-sulfamethoxazole, or Bacrim brand, is generally used to treat benign pulmonary infections, bacteria and acne.
Emmie Bellucci, 12, from Texas, was prescribed two antibiotic cures against cystic acne – a serious form that causes painful bumps deeply in the skin – last year.
A serious reaction has caused serious injuries to his lungs and his closure.
She was hospitalized for five months, depending on a tube in her trachea – a tapestomy – to help her breathe.
Doctors believe that the drug could trigger an immune response in young patients like Emmie, damaging the lung mucous membrane, causing respiratory failure.
Experts investigating this rare complication are now demanding increased research on the long -term misdeeds of the bacrim and tests to search for risk factors before describing the drug.
Dr. Jennifer Goldman, specialist in pediatric infectious diseases in Children’s Mercy Kansas City, said: “These are good medicines, and it is a very rare disease, but it is not known to all and must ‘be.
“There is an opportunity window to avoid serious complications.”
Emmie Bellucci (photo here), a 12 -year -old girl from Texas, suffered from respiratory failure shortly after taking a second bacrim antibiotic treatment for cystic acne.
Emmie has been in the hospital for five months to recover from an almost deadly complication. “We thought we lost it,” said his father, Frank Bellucci, to CNN.
Emmie told CNN: “All I know is that it is a miracle that I am there.”
Doctors began investigating the serious side effects of the Bactrim in 2018, when Zei Uwadia, 16, fell mysteriously ill and suffered from pulmonary insufficiency.
After the history of ZEI was made public, the doctors of the Children’s Mercy Kansas City, where the adolescent was treated, began to receive relationships from other adolescent patients suffering from similar symptoms.
All, including ZEI, had taken Bactrim.
Zei died in 2019 at the age of 17, two weeks after his return from the hospital.
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Dr. Goldman and Dr. Jenna Miller from Children’s Mercy Kansas City published a report in 2021 detailing 14 children and young adults who, they said, suffered from severe acute respiratory syndrome (SDRA), which occurs when liquid accumulates In the lungs, after having bacrim.
This disease, which affects 200,000 Americans per year, makes it difficult to send oxygen by the lungs to the blood, resulting in a failure of an organ.
One in three patients mentioned in the report died and 20 percent had to undergo a pulmonary transplant.
The examination prompted the FDA to add a warning label to Bactrim indicating “serious adverse pulmonary effects”.
Although prescriptions have decreased slightly over the years that have followed, experts claim that doctors and patients should be more aware of serious potential risks like these before administering the drug.
BACTRIM, also called trimethoprime-sulfamethoxazole, is prescribed at around 3 million Americans to treat benign infections, acne and bacteria resistant to drugs.
Zei Uwadia, photographed here, of Kansas, made the headlines in 2018 when she fell mysteriously ill and suffered from respiratory failure after taking Bactrim. She died in 2019 at the age of 17, just two weeks after her return from the hospital.
It is not known when Emmie can go home, even if she won mobility and if her respiratory assistance has been withdrawn, according to her family’s Facebook updates.
Dr. Miller and Dr. Goldman’s research revealed that all patients in their study presenting this serious reaction had the same type of genomic marker of the human leukocyte antigen (HLA), a type of protein present on most of their cells .
These markers help the immune system to determine which cells belong to the body and which are foreign.
In these patients, a specific HLA marker may have caused an immune reaction called diffuse alveolar lesion with delayed epithelialization, which leads the immune system to attack the alveoli, the air bags located in the lung mucous membrane.
This causes inflammation, accumulation of liquid in the lungs and pulmonary insufficiency.
We do not know if Emmie has this genetic marker.
Dr. Goldman told CNN that “20 to 30 percent of us have this genetic marker, so even if we know that this is a first step necessary to develop this reaction, we must better understand other genetic risks” .
The team works on additional research on genetic risk factors and hopes to develop tests to help doctors identify these risks before prescribing Bactrim.
Emmie said: “They could change many lives just by doing research.”
The Bellucci family collects funds via gofundme to cover their medical costs.
It is not known when Emmie can finally go home, although her family has documented her progress on Facebook, who shows her being picked up and walk in the hospital.