Antibiotic prescription course - an update

In July, The BMJ published an analysis article called “The Antibiotic Course has had it’s day” - a provocative title that turned out the garner a lot of debate on our site. The article said that the convention for the length of a course of antibiotics was set by Flemming, in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech - “If you use penicillin, use enough!” - and that the evidence base hasn’t moved on since then. The article has had over 40 substantive responses, both agreeing and vehemently not - and so we thought it worth revisiting that argument, now the dust has settled. Discussing that are Martin Llewellyn, professor of infectious disease at Brighton and Sussex Medical School, and Paul Little, professor of primary care at the University of Southampton. Read the original analysis: http://www.bmj.com/content/358/bmj.j3418