Professor Karina Butler:

Why would we, given that our entire practice is based on trying to drive forward medical practice and embrace science, ignore science that is real and has been validated? If there was evidence that prolonged courses of treatment helped to alleviate symptoms such as these, it would be the easiest thing in the world to write a prescription for antibiotics for six months. It is much harder to explain to patients why one does not do this. Long courses of antibiotics are associated with the potential for harm and, as Dr. Gerard Sheehan said, even with courses to treat a bone infection, for which we have to do prescribe them, there is the hazard of secondary infections such as clostridium difficile and colitis. There are hazards associated with antibiotics resistance and related to allergic reactions to antibiotics. On a wider scale, in this era when there is a real drive to husband the resource of antibiotics and not to use them inappropriately, we could be frittering away the chance to preserve the antibiotics that are active against pathogens.