Doctors in Shanghai have stopped prescribing antibiotics to
patients who suffer from common colds in a bid to combat the
growing resistance of some illnesses to such drugs.
The city's public health bureau released detailed instructions
on the clinical use of antibiotics yesterday. According to the new
rules, doctors must conclude, based on symptoms and laboratory test
results, that a patient has been infected with bacteria before
prescribing antibiotics. Patients with ordinary cases of the flu,
measles or viral hepatitis will not be treated with antibiotics
from now on.
The overuse of antibiotics has been a national problem in
China.
In the past, serious, acute cases of pneumonia were uncommon at
Nanjing's hospitals, according to Yangtze Evening News,
but several such cases appeared in the last year alone. Some of
these patients were even resistant to some antibiotics.
Doctors attributed the situation to the overuse of
antibiotics.
"It takes a long time to develop a new drug," said Professor
Yuan Kejian, vice-director of Shanghai's Ruijin Hospital. "Because
of the over-use of antibiotics, bacteria develop stronger and
stronger resistance to medicine."
Ni Yuxing, a professor at Ruijin Hospital, said that a few years
ago, the bacteria staphylococcus aureus could be killed by several
types of cephalosporins, but now only one antibiotic, Vanoomycin,
is effective in treating this kind of infection.
"Doctors with proper training don't prescribe antibiotics at
will," said a doctor surnamed Zhang at Shanghai Ren'Ai
Hospital.
But it is not just doctors who are to blame for the over-use of
antibiotics. Anyone could buy antibiotics without a prescription at
most pharmacies across the country until last year.
It is still possible to buy antibiotics in many under-developed
parts of China, where the regulations on medicine are not strictly
observed.
"My mother is a typical case of antibiotic overuse," said Zhang
Xiaotao, a young woman from east China's Shandong Province. "She takes these pills when
she feels sick, and when it doesn't work, she goes to a doctor for
a stronger pill."
(China Daily March 2, 2007)