Researchers have called on GPs to move away from the great ‘bacteria versus virus’ divide when it comes to treating patients with an upper respiratory tract infection.

GPs often consider whether a URTI illness has a viral or bacterial aetiology before deciding on their course of action on antibiotics, the University of Queensland researchers say in the Medical Journal of Australia.

Patient and prescriber educational resources also refer to the ‘viral versus bacterial’ paradigm to inform the choice of whether antibiotics should be prescribed or not.

But the researchers argue the latest evidence shows that the normal flora of the healthy human upper respiratory tract includes both viruses and bacteria, and that illness represents a shift in the usual spectrum of these.