Warning from Doctors: Popular Antibiotic Linked to Organ Failure

Doctors are sounding the alarm about a common antibiotic taken by millions that is linked to a number of deaths and extreme reactions.

Taken by about 3million Americans, Trimethoprim-Sulfamethoxazole, or brand name Bactrim, is usually used to treat mild chest infections, bacteria, and acne.

Emmie Bellucci, 12, from Texas, was prescribed two courses of the antibiotic for cystic acne – a severe form that causes painful lumps deep in the skin – last year. 

A severe reaction caused her lungs to become severely injured and shut down. 

She has been hospitalized with five months, reliant on a tube in her windpipe – a trachestomy – to help her breathe.

Doctors believe the drug could trigger an immune response in young patients like Emmie that damages the lining of the lungs, causing respiratory failure. 

Experts investigating the rare complication are now calling for increased research on Bactrim’s long-term harms and tests to look for risk factors before describing the drug.  

Dr Jennifer Goldman, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Children’s Mercy Kansas City, said: ‘These are good drugs, and this is a very rare condition, but it’s not commonly known, and needs to be.

‘There’s a window of opportunity to avert serious complications.’ 

Emmie Bellucci (pictured here), a 12-year-old from Texas, went into respiratory failure shortly after taking a second course of the antibiotic Bactrim for cystic acne

Emmie has been in the hospital for five months recovering from the near-fatal complication. ‘We thought we lost her,’ her father, Frank Bellucci, told CNN

Emmie told CNN: ‘All I know is it’s a miracle I’m here.’ 

Doctors began investigating severe side effects of Bactrim in 2018 when 16-year-old Zei Uwadia fell mysteriously ill and went into lung failure.

After Zei’s story was publicized, doctors at Children’s Mercy Kansas City, where the teen was being treated, started receiving reports from other teenage patients suffering similar symptoms.

All of them, including Zei, had taken Bactrim.  

Zei died in 2019 at age 17 two weeks after returning home from the hospital. 

Dr Goldman and Dr Jenna Miller of Children’s Mercy Kansas City published a report in 2021 detailing 14 children and young adults who they believe suffered from severe acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), which occurs when fluid builds up in the lungs, after taking Bactrim.

The condition, affecting 200,000 Americans per year, makes it difficult for the lungs to send oxygen to the bloodstream, leading to organ failure. 

One in three patients in the report died, and 20 percent had to have lung transplants.  

The review prompted the FDA to add a warning label to Bactrim indicating ‘severe pulmonary adverse reactions.’ 

While prescriptions have decreased slightly in the years following, experts say doctors and patients need to be more aware of potential severe risks like these before the drug is given.  

Bactrim, also called trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, is prescribed to about 3million Americans for mild infections, acne, and drug-resistant bacteria

Zei Uwadia, pictured here, of Kansas made headlines in 2018 when she fell mysteriously ill and went into respiratory failure after taking Bactrim. She died in 2019 at age 17 just two weeks after returning home from the hospital

It’s unclear when Emmie will be able to return home, though she has gained more mobility and had her breathing support removed, according to her family’s Facebook updates

Dr Miller and Dr Goldman’s research found all patients in their study with this severe reaction have the same type of genomic human leukocyte antigen (HLA) marker, a type of protein found on most of their cells.

These markers help the immune system tell which cells belong in the body and which are foreign. 

In these patients, a specific HLA marker may have caused an immune reaction called diffuse alveolar injury with delayed epithelialization, which causes the immune system to attack alveoli, air sacs in the lining of the lungs. 

This leads to inflammation, fluid buildup in the lungs, and lung failure.  

It’s unclear if Emmie has this genetic marker.  

Dr Goldman told CNN an estimated ’20 to 30 percent of us walking around have that genetic marker, so although we know it’s a first step needed to develop this reaction, we need to better understand other genetic risks.’ 

The team is working on additional research on genetic risk factors and hopes to develop testing to help doctors identify these risks before prescribing Bactrim.  

Emmie said: ‘They could change many, many lives just by researching.’

The Bellucci family is raising money via GoFundMe for medical expenses. 

It’s unclear when Emmie will finally be able to return home, though her family has documented her progress on Facebook, which shows her having her trachestomy removed and taking walks around the hospital.