In 1994, a Maryland woman developed a case of the rare affliction known as Stevens-Johnson Syndrome (SJS) after taking the antibiotic Bactrim.

What seemed like an ordinary case of bronchitis took a dangerous and unnecessary turn for Deborah Kaplan after she was prescribed the drug.

Kaplan, of Germantown, Maryland, was a generally healthy person before she visited a walk-in-clinic for a cough. She was diagnosed with bronchitis, and prescribed Bactrim, a widely-used sulfa antibiotic. Kaplan took the medication for ten days, and said it worked perfectly. However, a day after her last dose, she began to notice itchy bumps on her legs.

The bumps spread quickly, and soon her skin was covered with painful, oozing sores. She was taken to an emergency room, where she was diagnosed with chickenpox. Unsatisfied with the diagnosis, Kaplan visited internist Wayne Meyer, who was convinced Kaplan was suffering from the ultra-rare allergic reaction known as Stevens-Johnson Syndrome.

SJS attacks the skin, internal organs and mucous membranes. It is most often caused by an allergy to sulfa, but can also be caused by other drugs. It is believed that one to five cases among every million people will occur, and many medical professionals have gone their entire careers without seeing a single case of the disease. SJS is fatal about 40 percent of the time. Prompt hospital treatment is required.

Kaplan was lucky enough to survive her bout with Stevens-Johnson, but her problems continued after she got over the disease. She began to suffer from severe panics attacks, which Meyer believes are related to a post-traumatic stress reaction.

Meyer said the ironic part of Kaplan’s ordeal was that it was all caused by a drug that she didn’t even need in the first place.

“Ninety-nine percent of bronchitis cases don’t need an antibiotic,” he said. “It just kills me that it caused this.”

Source: Sandra G. Boodman, “ Chickenpox? No, Worse,” Washington Post, September 4, 2007.