Antibiotics, like penicillin, cephalosporins etc are used to
kill bacteria only. Antivirals like acyclovir, tamiflu are used to
kill viruses.
Old doctors like to give out antibiotics for mild cold or cough or
fever perhaps because they probably saw Strep throat (which is
linked to Rheumatic heart fever) in the old days, or they are
scared of lithigation, especially when the patient demands it. The
public is also under the wrong impression that antibiotics will
cure everything infectious . It does not.
Antibiotic abuse is seen in medical doctors , animal vets and the
farming industry and they give rise to antibiotic resistant
bacteria , like Salmonella DT 104, Salmonella kiambu , Methicillin
resistant staphylococcus aureus (aka MRSA /Golden staph),
Vancomycin resistant staphylococcus aureus , multi drug resistant
tuberculosis , Vancomycin resistant enterococci . Those are very
hard to treat. Now you even have linezoid resistant enterococci (
linezoid is the most up to date advanced and expensive
antibiotic).
