Next time you go to the doctor with a cold, don't count on coming home with antibiotics to treat it. The state Department of Health on Wednesday kicked off a yearlong campaign to urge patients to listen to their doctors when the professionals say antibiotics won't help with a virus. Dispensing the drugs liberally may have been good medicine a decade ago, when many new antibiotics were being developed. But that's not the case anymore, said Dr. Michael Keegan, the Tri-Cities' first physician specializing in infectious diseases. In the past, we've always been able to keep up.
Antibiotics are effective against bacteria.
They can prevent strep throat from leading to rheumatic fever and some ear infections from spreading to the brain. When this happens, your child may not respond to antibiotics when they really are needed. When people become ill with a resistant infection, they may need to be hospitalized to treat the bacterial illness with more powerful intravenous antibiotics. The stronger drugs also are more likely to have side effects. Resistant bacteria are on the rise in Washington, according to state health officials.