With experts at the Stockholm-based European Centre of Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) largely focused on the controlling infectious diseases in Europe, letters will be written to all GPs, warning them to refrain from handing out the drugs to patients as a routine.

The letters, to be written on November 18, will urge GPs to explain to demanding patients that antibiotics must be used sparingly.

Asking the GPs not to prescribe antibiotics for ailments like common cold and coughs, the experts at the influential centre noted that most prescriptions are not necessary and should be avoided - more so since they contribute to the number of infections that become resistant to antibiotics.

It is for the first time that health experts are forewarning that modern medicine might not benefit patients any longer, as antibiotics may be rendered ineffective in combating the extremely serious hospital infections.

Commenting on the need to check the routine prescription of drugs by doctors, Dominic Monnet - ECDC's senior expert at the Scientific Advice division - remarked: "If this wave of antibiotic resistance gets over us, we will not be able to do organ transplants, hip replacements, cancer chemotherapy, intensive care and neonatal care for premature babies. It is the whole span of modern medicine as we know it, that we will not be able to do if we lose antibiotics."