Brief Answer: Better to take medical advice Detailed Answer: Hello and welcome to health care magic, I am Dr Sriram Nathan an ENT surgeon who has treated millions with respiratory infections quite successfully and even I do not have a perfect over the counter medication for this! This is because though most of the times you may feel the medications like antibiotics are taken; this is only if the practicing doctor feels that you have a secondary bacterial infection. In any case every infection may look the same but there may be subtle differences which only an experienced medical practitioner can understand. Over the counter medications if taken without care or advice can cause serious problems. There are several factors which decide when we prescribe a medication for your problem like the side effects and the interactions with other medications. In fact even a simple medication like paracetamol can have serious side effects if abused. You can also consider these: -You must understand that most of the respiratory infections are due to virus and are very self limiting. -I would thus advice you to just take plenty of warm fluids and steam inhalation if needed and just wait for the infection to tide out its course. (we have an old adage for this-if you take medication for common cold it will become better in a week or else it will take seven days!!) -If you do have a sneeze or running nose you can take any of the antihistamine medication like levocetrizine but only in consultation with your doctor. Of course if your symptoms do not get better then you need to consult your ENT or Physician and get a proper treatment which can include a combination of painkillers like acetaminophen and antibiotic if necessary. Hope this helps and if you have any other doubts I will be glad to help regards Dr Sriram Nathan

---