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Source: http://www.shanghaidaily.com/article/?id=448649&type=National
China warned of superbug invasion
By Zhang Xuanchen | 2010-9-8 | NEWSPAPER EDITION
A LEADING medical expert has warned that the excessive use of antibiotics in the country's health system and agricultural industry can make China vulnerable to an explosion of superbugs resistant to almost all drugs.
Zhong Nanshan, a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and a medical tutor with the World Health Organization, said China is among the world's most reckless antibiotics users with doctors routinely prescribing multiple doses to treat simple conditions such as fever, colds and sore throats.
To make matters worse, the country also depends on the massive use of antibiotics in its fishing and agricultural industries, leading to a tainted food chain, Zhong said.
Chinese people consumed 10 times more antibiotics than their counterparts in the United States, but 20 percent of that was not necessary, Zhong told yesterday's West China City Daily.
The rampant overuse has caused a frightening increase in drug-resistant bacteria, Zhong added.
This has put the country in great danger from a possible outbreak of the latest superbug to be discovered, which is resistant to all the most power drugs, including antibiotics...
Read more: http://www.shanghaidaily.com/article/?id=448649&type=National#ixzz0ysTSf7Pi
China warned of superbug invasion
By Zhang Xuanchen | 2010-9-8 | NEWSPAPER EDITION
A LEADING medical expert has warned that the excessive use of antibiotics in the country's health system and agricultural industry can make China vulnerable to an explosion of superbugs resistant to almost all drugs.
Zhong Nanshan, a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and a medical tutor with the World Health Organization, said China is among the world's most reckless antibiotics users with doctors routinely prescribing multiple doses to treat simple conditions such as fever, colds and sore throats.
To make matters worse, the country also depends on the massive use of antibiotics in its fishing and agricultural industries, leading to a tainted food chain, Zhong said.
Chinese people consumed 10 times more antibiotics than their counterparts in the United States, but 20 percent of that was not necessary, Zhong told yesterday's West China City Daily.
The rampant overuse has caused a frightening increase in drug-resistant bacteria, Zhong added.
This has put the country in great danger from a possible outbreak of the latest superbug to be discovered, which is resistant to all the most power drugs, including antibiotics...
Read more: http://www.shanghaidaily.com/article/?id=448649&type=National#ixzz0ysTSf7Pi