DRUG ABUSE: The overuse of antibiotic drugs is rife in China (CFP)

Since penicillin was invented in 1928, antibiotics have spread rapidly around the world. In China, antibiotics are commonly referred to by another name—medicine to diminish inflammation.

"This name has contributed a lot to the spread of antibiotics in China," said Song Hongbin, a professor at the Institute of Disease Control and Prevention of the Academy of Military Medical Sciences. "People use antibiotics for almost everything as patients often have different sorts of inflammation, and do not understand side effects of antibiotics."

Huang Yiwen, a 32-year-old Beijing resident, said that since he was a child, doctors used antibiotics on him whenever he had a cold. "It has been common for children with colds to receive antibiotics," Huang said.

"China is definitely overusing antibiotics, and such abuse has destroyed the health of an entire generation of Chinese people," said Yao Jianhong, an official from the Ministry of Health (MOH) .

On April 18, 2011, the MOH initiated a nationwide campaign to regulate the clinical usage of antibiotic medicines.

According to regulations issued by the MOH last April, antibiotics used by hospitals are limited to 50 types for third-grade hospitals (the highest rank under China's hospital classification system) and 35 for second-grade hospitals. Before the implementation of the regulations, almost every hospital stocked and used more than 100 types of antibiotics. The MOH also requires that the precautionary use of antibiotics should be limited to 30 percent of all patients undergoing surgery.

Zhao Minggang, Deputy Director of the Medical Administration Department under the MOH, said at a press conference on November 10, 2011 that the MOH will take two more years to regulate the usage of antibiotics with further measures.

Rampant use

In China the most common method of administering antibiotics is by intravenous (IV) drip. In hospitals and clinics across China, patients often sit in rows of chairs or on gurneys in "infusion rooms," where antibiotics are injected directly into a vein via a drip attached to an overhanging bottle or bag.

Statistics from the MOH last year show that 70 out of 100 Chinese inpatients were using antibiotics, while actually only around 20 percent of them really needed antibiotic drugs. Vice Minister of Health Ma Xiaowei attributed the abuse to slack supervision, the incompetence of some health workers, poor public awareness and some doctors' desires to profit by prescribing more antibiotic drugs than necessary.

"Doctors often prescribe these medicines because their income is connected to the amount of drugs they prescribe," said Zhong Nanshan, Director of Guangzhou's Institute of Respiratory Diseases and a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. According to Zhong, antibiotic drugs account for about one quarter of drug sales in hospitals. "Hospitals will suffer significant economic losses if they are unable to sell their current antibiotic stocks before their expiry dates," Zhong said.