Doctors are being advised to tell patients to use home-remedies like honey, rather than antibiotics, as treatments for coughs.
Honey and over-the-counter remedies should be used as the go-to treatments under new draft guidance from Public Health England and the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence.
Doctors will be told not to offer antibiotics in most cases and instead encourage the use of self-care products as part of a growing effort to tackle the problem of antibiotic resistance.
Patients will be told to consider using honey or cough medicines, which have been shown to have some benefit for cough symptoms, before getting in touch with their doctor.
The new draft guidance warned that antibiotics can make little difference to symptoms and can have side-effects.
However, antibiotics can be necessary to treat coughs for patients who already have pre-existing conditions such as lung disease, the guidance said.
Dr Susan Hopkins, from PHE, told the Guardian: “Antibiotic resistance is a huge problem and we need to take action now to reduce antibiotic use.
“Taking antibiotics when you don’t need them puts you and your family at risk of developing infections which in turn cannot be easily treated.
“These new guidelines will support GPs to reduce antibiotic prescriptions and we encourage patients to take their GPs advice about self-care.”
A consultation on the draft guidance will close on 20 September.
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