Editor—Butler et al did not report a procedure that I use when faced with either a sore throat about which I am unsure or patients asking for antibiotics for their sore throat.1 I tell such patients that I think the cause of their sore throat is viral but that I will take a throat swab, with the promise that if their throat is still sore when the swab result is known I will prescribe an antibiotic on the basis of that result. Most seem happy—at least I don’t see many of these patients again.
References
- 1.Butler CC, Rollnick S, Pill R, Maggs-Rapport F, Stott N. Understanding the culture of prescribing: qualitative study of general practitioners’ and patients’ perceptions of antibiotics for sore throats. BMJ. 1998;317:637–642. doi: 10.1136/bmj.317.7159.637. . (5 September.) [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]