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Kidney Transplant Patient, Flu, Bilateral Bacterial Pneumonia. Antibiotics?
Question: I am a kidney transplant patient with a history of pnemonia and went to the ER with flu like systems. I was told I did not have the flu but viral bronchitis.The flu swab came back positive but I was not notified. Three days I went back to the ER as my condition had worsened. Xrays showed bilateral bacterial pnemonia caused by the flu I was told. Ended up 30 days in the hospital. As a transplant patient should I have been given XXXXXXX flu and antibiotics as a preventative measure.
Dear XXXXXXX
The normal protocol in all developed countries like US, when a patient comes with flu-like symptoms is to go for few pathological tests, like Complete Blood Count and Sputum Analysis.
On the basis of these tests, the doctor decides what sort of infection it is – viral, bacterial, etc. If bacterial infection, what antibiotics should be prescribed for it, that is what antibiotics the bacteria is susceptible to (ANTIBIOGRAM).
TAMIFLU (Oseltamivir) has lots of side-effects and is normally given for within 48 hours of onset of Influenza. There are no robust controlled trails for treatment or prevention of Influenza in Immunocompromised patients. WWW.WWWW.WW
There is no role for prophylactic antibiotics. Only after antibiogram, the proper antibiotics should be prescribed in proper dose after checking the risk-benefit ratio. This is again true for Post-transplant patients.
So your doctors were not wrong in not giving you TAMIFLU or prophylactic antibiotics. In fact, your doctors should know about benefits of Annual Influenza vaccine.
I hope that I have solved your queries.
The normal protocol in all developed countries like US, when a patient comes with flu-like symptoms is to go for few pathological tests, like Complete Blood Count and Sputum Analysis.
On the basis of these tests, the doctor decides what sort of infection it is – viral, bacterial, etc. If bacterial infection, what antibiotics should be prescribed for it, that is what antibiotics the bacteria is susceptible to (ANTIBIOGRAM).
TAMIFLU (Oseltamivir) has lots of side-effects and is normally given for within 48 hours of onset of Influenza. There are no robust controlled trails for treatment or prevention of Influenza in Immunocompromised patients. WWW.WWWW.WW
There is no role for prophylactic antibiotics. Only after antibiogram, the proper antibiotics should be prescribed in proper dose after checking the risk-benefit ratio. This is again true for Post-transplant patients.
So your doctors were not wrong in not giving you TAMIFLU or prophylactic antibiotics. In fact, your doctors should know about benefits of Annual Influenza vaccine.
I hope that I have solved your queries.
Note: For further queries related to kidney problems and comprehensive renal care, talk to a Nephrologist. Click here to Book a Consultation.
Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar
Answered by
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