AboutDr. Ravindra Bhaskar Ghooi Expertise I can provide information on drugs and medicines, their actions, uses, interactions and adverse effects. To avoid confusion, generic names of
medicines may please be provided. I am a pharmacologist, having worked
on animal and human pharmacology, and presently I am the Dean of Bilcare Research Academy, where we teach courses on clinical research. We dont work on saturdays and sundays, hence questions reachng me on these days will be replied on Monday, please bear with me.
Question I have pneumonia. I have been on Amoxicillin 1000mg twice sailt. Today the doctor switched me to Levaquin 750mg. I took 1000mg Amoxicillin this morning before going to the doctor and before the swicth to Levaquin. The office is now closed and I am wondering if it is safe to go ahead and take the Levaquin tonight. Also, there is a lot of adverse information about Levaquin...is it safe?
Answer Hi Beverly,
Levaquin is a flouroquinolone known as Levofloxacin. These are among the safest drugs used to treat infection. Side effects which are mentioned in the literature refer to an incidence of less than 1%, that means that only 1 out of 100 patients is likely to have them. There is risk in the use of any drug, what we assess is the risk versus the benefit. Peumonia is a serious disease and looking at the side effects of the drug I would surmise that the risk benefit ratio is very favourable for the use of the drug. I would therefore go ahead and use the drug and worry about side effects only if they occur. It is like crossing the bridge when we come to it. If we worried about the reported side effects of any drug, it would be impossible to use any drug at all.
Best wishes
Ravi Ghooi
