Suggest Treatment For Cough With Fever,body Chills And Body Aches

Posted on Wed, 19 Feb 2014

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Wed, 19 Feb 2014 Answered on

Fri, 7 Mar 2014 Last reviewed on

Question : Hi I am trying to decide if I should go to a medcheck. How do you know if you need an antibiotic or not. I started with a bad tight cough fri afternoon, then sat had fever, chills, aches, headache, and worse cough, no congestion. sun fever and aches gone, now just head congestion and still horrible cough.

Answered by Dr. Dr. Ivan Romich (54 minutes later)

Brief Answer: Hi and welcome to HCM Detailed Answer: Thanks for the query. Antibiotics are used for bacterial infections and sometimes it is not easy to determine is this bacterial or viral. in most cases,throat infections are viral and it should subside within 2-3 days. However productive cough and chills indicate bacterial infection and you should visit doctor who can examine your throat and tonsilles and decide are antibiotics neccessary. Most such infection are not serious but sometime sit may progress to bronchitis or pneumonia so it would be wise to visit doctor. Wish you good health. Feel free to ask. Regards

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar