Today's Malady: when the treatment is what ails you

After a bit of a hiatus (due to being seriously busy), I bring you:

(drum roll please)

Today's Malady!

Imagine that you've gone to the doctor for a sore throat. Or perhaps a bladder infection. You get sent home with the usual course of antibiotics. You take them, and figure that soon you'll be feeling better.

Instead, within a day or so, you begin to feel hot, and sick to your stomach. You begin breaking out in blisters: at first your face, then they spread. And that's just the beginning.

What began as a simple bladder infection or strep throat, ends up with you spending a week or more in intensive care. As the condition peaks, you may be admitted to a burn unit. You may end up blind. You may end up with permanent scars. If you're immune-compromised, elderly, or a child, you may die.

You have just become a victim of Stevens-Johnson Syndrome - an allergic reaction to antibiotics.

A particularly severe form of the condition, toxic epidermal necrolysis, may result in all of the skin being shed which, just as in the case of burn victims, leaves the sufferer vulnerable to infection.

Treatment dominantly consists of good supportive care, although intravenous immunoglobulin therapy shows potential for early treatment.