Link: BBC NEWS | Health | GPs urged to cut back antibiotics.
The government said action was necessary to protect the efficacy of the drugs that people have. Antibiotics treat bacterial infections but all colds and most coughs and sore throats are caused by viruses so they cannot be cured with antibiotics. Sir Liam Donaldson added that many people did not realize the reason that infections such as MRSA are hard to get rid of is because the bacteria are resistant to the main class of antibiotics used to treat them. Chief medical officer for England, Liam Donaldson said: "Antibiotic resistance is becoming more common and in recent years fewer new antibiotics have been discovered."
