New technique developed to identify children at risk of hospitalisation following coughs and respiratory tract infections

 Researchers have developed a technique that will help GPs identify which children with coughs and respiratory tract infections (RTIs) are most at risk of future hospitalisation. They believe that, if this new algorithm is used to its full potential, it could reduce the amount of antibiotics prescribed to these children by as much as 10%. The work is published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine. Primary care practitioners such as GPs are responsible for 80% of all antibiotic prescriptions in the UK. Around half of these are for RTIs, despite their effectiveness in treating RTIs having been shown to be limited.