Antibiotics in Respiratory Tract Infections — Communicating the NICE Guidance

Abstract

Everybody regardless of age, ethnic background or socio-economic group has had at least one respiratory tract infection (RTI) in their lifetime and a quarter of the population will visit their GP with RTIs each year. Before antibiotics, secondary complications of usually self-limiting RTIs, such as pneumonia and quinsy, could be fatal. The discovery and development of penicillin by Fleming in the 1920's made antibiotics a lifesaver and they became increasingly prescribed for minor, usually self-limiting illness to prevent these complications. Over the years the cycle of medicalising self-limiting illness has continued. For example parents of children with otitis media are 30% more likely to attribute the improvement in the child to the antibiotics and not to their child's own immune system.