Antibiotics not always the answer, health care professionals say

RAPID CITY, S.D. (Nov. 22, 2021) – Monument Health joins other health care systems across the United States to mark Antibiotic Awareness Week. It’s an observance to raise awareness of the importance of appropriate antibiotic use to combat the threat of antibiotic resistance.

Antibiotics are successful in fighting or preventing bacterial infections. When a patient needs antibiotics, the benefits outweigh the risks of side effects and antibiotic resistance. However, antibiotics do not treat viruses, which cause colds, flu, COVID-19 and other viral infections. In addition, antibiotics are often not needed.

And use of antibiotics can contribute to the development of antibiotic resistance – when germs evolve with the ability to defeat the drugs designed to kill them. 

Dr. James Keegan, a Rapid City physician whose company Keegan Mason & Associates has worked for years to help health care systems across the country reduce reliance on broad-spectrum antibiotics. 

“In much of the country, antibiotics are losing effectiveness, and that’s due to overuse of antibiotics and mainly the use of certain types of antibiotics,” he said. 

He cites broad spectrum antibiotics, which are designed to kill a lot of different types of bacteria. They can be effective, but they can also kill the good bacteria our bodies need to survive, and give rise to new resistant bacteria strains.