Yes, it is, unfortunately, a very common practice to over prescribe antibiotics for any and every condition. Nowadays, there are even stronger and more potent antibiotics that have come into the market and these are being prescribed by general practitioners for common ailments, including cold, and flu, which can be treated simply at home by 1. Good bed rest 2. plenty of fluid intake 3. increase intake of vitamin c either in the form of fruit juices or as a tablet. 4. have a light and simple diet which should be devoid of fried or spicy stuff. 5. last, but not the least, Get good sleep! This generally is enough to cure a person for simple cold, or flu which normally also takes about a week for the body to be able to take care of the infection on its own. This also helps the body to increase its immunity to further attacks of the same virus or bacterial infection. Antibiotics should be taken only in cases where the symptoms are not subsiding and person develops high fever along with other symptoms of distress. Most of the time, I personally have observed in my practice, the patients who turn up with common cold, cough or flu like symptoms, are sick only because of simple neglect of personal diet,hygiene, dress sense (not wearing appropriate warm clothing in chilly or cold climate), a case of stress, a case of undernourishment, or the person is too lazy to follow all instructions to the dot, of the doctor and would rather take medication and be well in a jiffy, than lie around in bed for a week, waiting for the symptoms to subside! Sometimes, a simple remedy of warm salt water gargles and warm water intake along with steam inhalation is all it takes to get better in a jiffy. But, people these days are too busy and don't have time to do all this. They'd rather have an antibiotic! Counseling patients is a very important step these days and informing them of the disease and its normal course of activity. Antibiotics should be prescribed only when needed and then care should be taken that the exact dose and the correct schedule should be taken as prescribed by the doctor. Bacteria can develop resistance to an antibiotic even when antibiotics are taken for incorrect time and incorrect dosages. In that case, the doctor is then forced to prescribe a stronger antibiotic.