The joint call given by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Ministry of Health on Thursday against the improper and excessive use of antibiotics speaks volumes of the seriousness of drug resistance.

The ministry may have denied that improper and excessive use of antibiotics causes about 80,000 deaths a year in China. But it monitors drug use in only about 200 hospitals and is yet to oversee the use of antibiotics in a wider range of areas. In fact, a ministry official conceded that antibiotics are indeed used excessively in the country.

Given the wide use of antibiotics in agriculture and animal husbandry, microorganisms are rapidly becoming immune to antimicrobials, which usually is called antimicrobial resistance.

According to WTO figures, about 440,000 new cases of multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis are reported every year, causing at least 150,000 deaths. The emergence of drug-resistant super-bacteria is said to have something to do with the abuse of antibiotics.

We are not raising a false alarm by saying that if proper measures are not taken to tackle the problem today, very few drugs will be left to save people from drug-resistant bacteria attacks in the near future. Hence, the Ministry of Health is right in adopting tougher measures against the excessive use of antibiotics.

The ministry will strictly regulate prescriptions for antibiotics. It plans to prepare detailed rules for cases in which antibiotics can be used and punish hospital officials that violate them. It also has plans to establish a national network to monitor all hospitals in the country, and make provincial and county health departments establish similar networks at the local level.

Of course, people have to be made aware of the harm that excessive or improper use of antibiotics can cause, because if patients are vigilant, doctors will exercise more caution in the use of antibiotics.

But the situation is not as simple as it seems. It is rather complicated, for we take in antibiotics not only through drugs or injections, but also through the meat, seafood, vegetables and fruits we consume.

Therefore, the Ministry of Health alone cannot control the use of antibiotics. Other departments, such as the Ministry of Agriculture, have to closely monitor their use by cattle and pig farmers, aquatic farmers and fruit and vegetable growers. Random checks on farms will help reveal whether farmers are using excessive antibiotics in animal feeds, fertilizers and pesticides.

It is one thing to raise people's awareness and quite another to prepare detailed rules and implement them in letter and spirit. Eventually the success of the measures taken by the Ministry of Health to prevent drug resistance will depend primarily on down-to-earth efforts taken by governments at all levels.

(China Daily 04/09/2011 page5)