Guidance

Managing common infections: guidance for primary care

Guidance for managing common infections, including upper and lower respiratory, and urinary tract infections.

This publication was withdrawn on

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and other collaborators are discussing options for continued production of the Summary of antimicrobial prescribing guidance. Please refer to the TARGET antibiotic toolkit to find a list of the conditions in the table linked to available national guidance and for further updates.

Documents

Summary of antimicrobial prescribing guidance: managing common infections

Request an accessible format.
If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need a version of this document in a more accessible format, please email publications@phe.gov.uk. Please tell us what format you need. It will help us if you say what assistive technology you use.

Summary of antimicrobial prescribing guidance: managing common infections

Request an accessible format.
If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need a version of this document in a more accessible format, please email publications@phe.gov.uk. Please tell us what format you need. It will help us if you say what assistive technology you use.

Details

This guidance is to help GPs and healthcare staff to treat infections and use antibiotics responsibly.

Public Health England (PHE) and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) jointly produced the summary tables which are hosted on the British National Formulary website.

The context, references and rational document explains the PHE content in the joint tables.

Published 5 August 2010
Last updated 17 June 2021 + show all updates
  1. Updated to align with the publication of new national guidance on impetigo, leg ulcers, eczema and human or animal bites.

  2. Updated Summary of antimicrobial prescribing guidance PDF and ODT.

  3. Removed references for pneumonia and cellulitis and erysipelas sections based on table summary changes. Modified reference for tick bites and H.Pylori.

  4. Guidance updated to support minor text clarifications in the summary tables based on user feedback.

  5. Updated new versions of documents.

  6. Removed Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) guidance from documents.

  7. Updated guidance based on user feedback and added Lyme's disease. Replaced guidance on UTI, acute sore throat, acute otitis media and sinusitis with NICE guidelines and joint table now published on NICE website.

  8. Updated guidance following minor review in November 2017

  9. Updated guidance and summary tables after consultation.

  10. Added link to a new draft version of the guidance available for public consultation.

  11. Uploaded the new versions of documents.

  12. Published updated guidance and summary tables.

  13. Updated guidance documents published.

  14. Updated guidance following minor review in April 2015.

  15. Updates: dose of pivmecillinam corrected; wording within urinary tract infections (UTIs) in adults clarified to make it clear that nitrofurantoin is first line, and trimethoprim and pivmecillinam are alternatives.

  16. Updated guidance.

  17. Latest review April 2014, under review September 2014.

  18. First published.