British researchers are calling on doctors to cut back on prescribing antibiotics to patients with common sinus infections because the drugs don’t work. An analysis of nine trials published in the journal The Lancet found antibiotics were ineffective treatments even in people who had been ill for more seven days. Sinusitis is an infection of the sinuses, small air pockets inside the cheekbones and forehead. Infected sinuses can cause blocked and runny noses, sinus pain, and high temperature. It is a very common occurrence, and often follows a cold or flu. According to BBC News, 1-5% of adults are diagnosed every with a sinus infection, around 90 percent of which are given antibiotic prescriptions. Current guidelines advise doctors to prescribe antibiotics only when the patient has been ill for seven to ten days, since an illness of this length was thought to indicate a bacterial rather than viral infection. But the latest research, which examined how long 2,600 patients were ill before receiving treatment, found the time duration of the illness is not a good predictor of whether antibiotics will be effective. Based on their work, the researchers concluded that […]