Wu Guangqiang

    jw368@163.com

    ANTIBIOTIC misuse is the misuse or overuse of antibiotics, which could potentially pose a serious threat to public health. It is a contributing factor in the development of antibiotic resistance, including the creation of multidrug-resistant bacteria — aka “super bugs” — relatively harmless bacteria that develop a resistance to multiple antibiotics that can cause life-threatening infections.

    Viral illnesses should not be treated with antibiotics. Antibiotics should only be used to treat bacterial infections.

    In China, most people do not know that antibiotics have no effect on viral infections such as the common cold. Antibiotics are also ineffective against sore throats, which are usually viral and self-resolving. That’s why when a patient is diagnosed with a viral cold, the doctor will tell him to drink more water and get sufficient sleep. Only when the human immune system is strong enough to drive off the virus will the patient get healthy again.

    When my son was small, even if he had a fever after catching a cold, I never let the doctors give him antibiotics. I just wiped him down with a hot towel, which would lower his temperature quickly. At 30 years old now, he has hardly used any antibiotics in his life and is quite healthy.

    In contrast, one of my distant relatives was a victim of overuse of antibiotics. Every time he got a cold, he would go to a drug store to buy a packet of antibiotics and swallowed as many pills as he liked. In the end, he became increasingly susceptible to infections and ended up dying of kidney failure in his early 50s.

    Chinese children are bearing the brunt of the hazards of antibiotic misuse. A saying in the medical community goes: In the U.S., it’s easy to buy a gun, but hard to buy antibiotics, but in China, the opposite is true.

    According to Wan Lisheng, director of Shenzhen Children’s Hospital’s Traditional Chinese Medicine Department and author of the book “Who Ruined Children’s Health,” the current antibiotic utilization rate for hospitalized children is over 80 percent.

    An investigation at some Shenzhen hospitals found that 90 percent of doctor prescriptions for common colds contained antibiotics. The prime culprit for Chinese children’s susceptibility to illnesses is the overuse of antibiotics.

    However, even cautious users like me still have a hard time avoiding antibiotic misuse. According to a study released by a Guangzhou-based institution under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, China consumed a total of 162,000 tons of antibiotics in 2013, accounting for half of the world’s total consumption.

    Xiao Yonghong, a professor at the Clinical Laboratory of Infectious Diseases at Zhejiang First Hospital, told reporters some alarming facts about the antibiotic misuse.

    A recent urine test of over 1,000 schoolchildren aged 8 to 11 showed that nearly 60 percent of the samples contained antibiotics. Another study found that there are 68 kinds of antibiotics in China’s underground water.

    Professor Xiao warned that antibiotic resistance is a serious threat to public health and that the situation in China is particularly grave. Every year, over 80,000 people die from antibiotic-resistant illnesses across the country. Unless the problem gets resolved, 1 million people will be killed by “super bugs” by 2050.

    The key solution to this issue is legislation. The lack of laws or regulations governing antibiotic use is the root of all the chaos.

    Transparency is vital. Patients have the right to know all the facts about antibiotic use — they are not guinea pigs. Intentional overuse of antibiotics should be criminalized.

    Individuals should also learn how to use antibiotics wisely.

    (The author is an English tutor and freelance writer.)