Follow professional advice on antibiotics | Letters

The idea that patients should stop taking antibiotics 'when they feel better' is too subjective, say representatives of the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy

We welcome the debate sparked by your article (Keep taking the tablets? Antibiotics rule could be wrong, 27 July). The British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy (BSAC) is keen to safely reduce the overall use of antibiotics, given that "overuse" is helping to drive the alarming rise in so-called superbugs.

We, like others, suspect that a significant number of antibiotics are being prescribed for longer than is necessary. However, the idea that patients should stop taking antibiotics "when they feel better" is too subjective and risks treatment failure or relapse. Most patients simply will not know if the cause of their infection has been eradicated - or not. Two things need to happen urgently: research to identify (1) all those infections that do not need to be treated with antibiotics, and (2) the most effective length of treatment for those infections that do.

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