EKU Podcast: Respiratory tract infections

Respiratory disease, including infections, affects one in five people in England and is the third biggest cause of death, with around 68,000 annual deaths. In this podcast Dr Thomas Round talks to Professor Paul Little, a GP and Professor of Primary Care Research at the University of Southampton about respiratory tract infections. They provide a discussion on the common presentations to primary care including symptoms and their duration, natural history, assessment (triage), red flags, treatment including best practice for the use of antibiotics (NNT and NNH, TARGET toolkit), point of care testing (CRP), the use of nasal sprays, encouraging at risk groups to receive vaccinations, continuation of hand washing, and the impact of stress on illness. They also offer top tips for everyday practice. Further reading : RCGP Essential Knowledge Update Hot Topic: Nasal sprays and behavioural interventions compared with usual care for acute respiratory illness in primary care RCGP TARGET antibiotics toolkit hub Little P, Vennik J, Rumsby K, et al. Nasal sprays and behavioural interventions compared with usual care for acute respiratory illness in primary care: a randomised, controlled, open-label, parallel-group trial . Lancet Respir Med. 2024 Aug;12(8):619-632. Little P, Stuart B, Andreou P, et al. Primary care randomised controlled trial of a tailored interactive website for the self-management of respiratory infections (Internet Doctor) . BMJ Open. 2016 Apr 20;6(4): e009769. RCGP Podcast Feedback Your feedback plays a crucial role in helping us improve the CPD products and services we offer. We would be grateful if you could please complete our short RCGP Podcast Survey , which will take no more than 5 minutes to complete.

You can listen to EKU Podcast: Respiratory tract infections online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

EKU Podcast: Respiratory tract infections is an episode from RCGP eLearning Podcast.

This episode is 23:30 long.

This episode was published on Mar 2, 2026.

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