Q: My 16 years old son is having intermittent respiratory tract infections for the last 2-3 months. He had running nose, mild cough, headache, etc. a few weeks back. Homeopathic drugs gave good relief, but there seems to be a lurking infection and his general stamina has come down. However, he is generally healthy. He is having mild acne and dandruff too for the last year. The skin on his face is not clear. When he tried Tetracycline about 2 weeks ago he suffered with headache and so discontinued it from the third day. Now two days back he got stomach pain around the naval region. The gastroenterologist suggested Collapso and said it is due to general stress and contraction of the intestines. Our homeopathic doctor also said the same thing and gave him Colosinth and he got good relief with it. Yesterday, when we got the result of Arogyam-30, all parameters were normal except ESR which was 30 mm. There are no other clinical symptoms. Can he take Cefotaxime of 100 mg twice a day for say 4 days to get rid of subclinical infection?

A:There is nothing in common between mild acne (quite common and hence normal at puberty) and dandruff. Nothing needs to be done for mild acne. For dandruff one can use one of the OTC (Over The Counter) products as shampoos. The blood tests do not show any evidence of subclinical infection; hence taking a potent antibacterial such as Cefotaxime is not indicated. Not only it can cause side effects but also can lead to antibacterial resistance. For mild respiratory symptoms, one should use steam inhalation 2-3 times daily mixed with Sinarest Vapocaps instead of jumping to antibiotics. Many a times such symptoms are due to viruses, which are not controlled by drugs but by body's own immunity.