New Delhi: Indian Council of Medical Research with guidelines not to give antibiotics for minor fever and viral bronchitis (lung disease). ICMR advises doctors to be careful while prescribing medicines.
Antibiotics should only be given for five days for infections that are superficial to the skin and affect tissues. Community-acquired pneumonia can be treated with antibiotics for five days and for hospital-acquired pneumonia for eight days. Empirical antibiotic therapy should be given only for community-acquired pneumonia, ventilator-acquired pneumonia, severe sepsis, septic shock, and flesh-eating bacteria, ICMR reports said.