Antibiotic resistance poses fatal threat

Experts warn that excessive use of drugs designed to kill bacteria could result in millions of deaths every year. Shan Juan reports.

As the use of antibiotics at China's healthcare facilities comes under increasingly strict control, public health experts at home and abroad are turning their attention to agriculture and calling for enhanced management to prevent potential overuse in the sector.

Every year, 50 percent of the antibiotics employed in the world are used in China, with 52 percent of them used to treat animals bred for food, according to the latest report on international antibiotic use, led by Jim O'Neill, former chief economist at Goldman Sachs who was an adviser to David Cameron, the former prime minister of the United Kingdom.

The report, called the Global Review on AMR (antimicrobial resistance), warns that by 2005, antimicrobial resistance could be responsible for killing 10 million people across the world every year, the equivalent of one person every 3 seconds - higher than the annual global death toll from cancer.

It also estimates that by 2050, AMR could result in 1 million premature deaths every year in China.

AMR occurs when microbes evolve to become increasingly, or fully, resistant to previously effective antibiotics. The term also covers antibiotic resistance, which applies to bacteria and antibiotics.

"China could suffer an enormous loss of GDP because of that," O'Neill wrote in an email exchange with China Daily.

He added that the government recognizes the issue as one of crucial importance and has made efforts to curb excessive antibiotic use, particularly for medical purposes.

Statistics from the National Health and Family Planning Commission show that antibiotic use in China's hospitals has fallen by 40 percent since 2012, when the commission imposed measures - including stricter controls, prescription-only access and health education - to curb long-term excess use.