Sir, at last, common sense has prevailed.1 I work in the hospital sector and I first became aware of this paper2 three weeks ago and implemented the guidelines within our unit. However, we are having some problems convincing our patients of the change, and some are still insisting on taking the antibiotics against our advice. We have to remember that we have been very good at educating our patients over the last 30 years of the importance of antibiotic prophylaxis, and now we have to tell them something completely different. It may be a while before we get the message through to all our patients with regards to this change.