A WIRRAL doctor has warned that taking antibiotics is a waste of time if people have a cold, flu or a sore throat.

Dr Shyamal Mukherjee's message comes as the numbers of people with flu and colds and sore throats increases in the run-up to the Christmas holiday.

NHS Wirral is promoting a campaign to remind people about the problem of antibiotic resistance and to remind people that antibiotics will not cure viral illnesses like colds and most sore throats.

Dr Shyamal Mukherjee said: "Antibiotics don't work for common colds, flu or sore throats. NHS Wirral fully supports this year's antibiotics campaign to reduce the unnecessary use of antibiotics.

"It should be everyone's responsibility to conserve antibiotics and promote proper usage. This will be more effective in disease management and will help to tackle serious infections in the future."

Dr Bruce Taylor, General Practitioner Prescribing Lead for NHS Wirral added: "A lot of the common symptoms seen at this time of year are caused by viruses rather than bacteria and simply do not respond to antibiotic treatment.

"In the vast majority of cases of cough, cold, sore throat and ear infection antibiotics will make no difference to either the length or severity of the infection.

"You should use simple remedies such as paracetamol or take advice from your local community pharmacists."

Victoria Vincent, Antibiotics Lead Pharmacist, NHS Wirral, said: "Taking an antibiotic when you don’t need it will only give unnecessary side effects and also can lead to a greater problem when antibiotics will stop working against more serious infections."

Antibiotics are only effective in treating bacterial infections. All colds, most coughs and most sore throats are viral so antibiotics will not help.

"Antibiotics are not without side effects and can make you feel worse after taking them."

Unnecessary antibiotic prescribing risks bacteria becoming resistant to antibiotics and being ineffective in the future.

Some serious infections like MRSA are already resistant to several antibiotics.

Patients sometimes request antibiotics from doctors 'just in case' but we must all play a part in conserving antibiotics use so they do not become ineffective against a bacterial infection when we need them.