Efracea (doxycycline)

Efracea is used to diminish the lumps, spots and pimples associated with rosacea.

Buy Efracea online

You can buy Efracea online following an online consultation with one of our GPs. Efracea is a prescription medication, so you must go through the consultation process in order to purchase this treatment.

What is Efracea?

Efracea contains a tetracycline antibiotic called doxycycline. Doxycycline is an active compound that can treat a broad range of infections caused by bacteria. It penetrates the bacteria, stopping them from producing proteins, thus preventing the bacteria from growing and replicating. The doxycycline formulation in this treatment is devised to have anti-inflammatory properties, which may help to reduce the inflammation seen in rosacea, and thus treat your rosacea-associated lumps, spots and pimples.

How to use Efracea

Efracea is a modified-release hard capsule that contains 40 mg of doxycycline. Usually, one capsule is taken daily, swallowed whole with plenty of water (or it may cause irritation to your throat). This medication should be taken in the morning, either one hour before or at least two hours after food (particularly milk and dairy foods), and continued until your doctor advises you to stop. When taking Efracea, always use a sun blocker when in strong natural or artificial sunlight to minimise the risk of severe sunburn that can occur with doxycycline, and stop taking if you get sunburned.

Always take this medicine as you have been told by your doctor, as there is a risk of your intestinal bacteria becoming resistant to Doxycycline. If you take more than your doctor has recommended then you may suffer some liver, kidney or pancreatic damage, so get medical advice immediately. If you miss a dose, then continue taking this medicine at the usual dose at the usual time (do not double the dose).

Who can use Efracea?

Efracea is for adults and older people; children can also take it if over the age of 12 years. If you are planning pregnancy, pregnant or breast-feeding, take advice from your doctor before taking Efracea. Taken after the third month of pregnancy, this medicine may cause the baby's teeth to be discoloured; taken while breastfeeding, Doxycycline may affect the baby's bone growth. Similarly, children younger than 12 years may have problems with tooth discolouration or development.

You must not take Efracea if you have an allergy to doxycycline, any tetracycline medicine, or any other constituents of Efracea, such as sucrose and E129 (allura red AC aluminium lake). Also, do not take this medication if you have achlorhydria (no stomach acid) or have had surgery on your duodenum (upper intestine). It is important that before taking Efracea you let your doctor know if you have gullet irritation/ulcers, colitis, liver disease, a sugar intolerance, or myasthenia gravis, your rosacea affects your eyes, or if you often get candida or oral or vaginal fungal infections.

Inform the doctor about all your other medicines - those you take, might take or have recently taken - as the action of these or Efracea may be affected. Do not take Efracea together with retinoids taken by mouth (used for skin problems), the acne treatment isotretinoin (may increase brain pressure), or the anaesthetic methoxyfluorane (may cause kidney damage). The following medicines must be taken 2-3 hours after swallowing Efracea or it may not work as well: antacids, ulcers or heartburn medicines, multivitamins, or products containing aluminium, bismuth, calcium (e.g. milk), activated charcoal, cholestyramine, iron, magnesium, or sucralfate. A range of medicines may reduce the time period that an Efracea dose is active, including barbiturates, carbamazepine, diphenylhydantoin, phenytoin, primidone, cyclosporin, or rifampicin. Additionally, doses of some medicines may need to be adjusted when taking Efracea, including blood thinners and diabetes treatments. Efracea may reduce the effectiveness of some antibiotics (e.g. penicillins).

Efracea side effects

Immediately see a doctor and stop using Efracea if you have a hypersensitivity reaction, whereby your face, tongue, lips or throat swell, breathing becomes difficult, your skin and eyes itch, or you get hives, palpitations (rapid heartbeat) or feel faint. Additionally, immediately seek medical advice if you have prolonged/severe/bloody diarrhoea during or after Efracea treatment, as you may have inflammation of the bowel.

Common side effects include inflammation of the nose, throat and sinuses, dry mouth, upper abdominal or other pain, diarrhoea, raised blood pressure, sinus headache, anxiety, fungal infections, and blood test anomalies (glucose levels, liver function tests). Other types of headache may occur.

Some side effects that may occur with Efracea may also occur with any of the other tetracycline medicines. Rarely people report feeling or being sick, diarrhoea, anorexia, hives, skin rashes, abnormal skin reaction to sunlight, liver damage, increased brain pressure, pericardial (membrane containing the heart) inflammation, and blood test anomalies (blood cells and urea levels). Very rarely, inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract, flaky skin, problems swallowing, anal or genital yeast infection, discoloured thyroid tissue, or worsening of systemic lupus erythematosus have been reported. Nails may come away from the nail bed with sun exposure in some people.