Overuse of antibiotics

Antibiotic-resistant super bacteria are a reminder of how consequential the overuse of antibiotics can be. For China, a country that used a total of 10.4 billion bottles of medicines in intravenous infusions - eight bottles per person - in 2009, overmedication and the overuse of antibiotics has become a problem that we cannot afford to ignore.

Worldwide the bottles of medicine used in such a manner are between 2.5 and 3.3 per person a year. Intravenous infusions should be the last resort of doctors after other ways of administering medicines, such as orally or by injection, have proved ineffective.

It can be 10 times more costly to use intravenous infusions rather than administering by mouth or injection. Also, when hospitals rely on the sale of medicines for their revenue, intravenous infusions are more frequently used for patients whose conditions are not serious enough to justify their use. It is quite common for Chinese patients to have antibiotics intravenously administered for a bad cold or fever.