China has issued its first national guideline on the clinical use of antibacterial drugs, a senior Ministry of Health official announced on October 9.

The guideline classifies three types of antibacterial drugs based on their clinical effects and safety. Hospitals are directed to adopt different prescription rules for each type, said the Health Ministry's Wang Yu at a press briefing in Beijing.

The guideline also establishes principles for the application of antibacterial drugs in disease treatment and prevention as well as the use of antibiotics under specific pathologic and physical conditions.

Antibacterial drugs have been in clinical use for about 70 years and saved millions of lives. But the side effects of antibiotics and the growing antibiotic resistance caused by the abuse of the drugs have created increasingly serious problems.

The Health Ministry reports that 97 out of 225 deaths caused by inappropriate use of medicines are related to antibacterial drugs, 43 percent of the total death toll.

Inappropriate use of the drugs can damage organs, cause disorders in the body's normal bacteria and increase the resistance of disease-causing germs.

Wang said the ministry hopes the guideline will function as a reference to help standardize doctors' issuance of antibiotics and improve Chinese hospitals' treatment of bacterial infections.

The ministry is setting up a nationwide bacterial resistance monitoring network. "We will revise the guideline periodically based on monitoring and research results," Wang said.

A prescription was not needed to buy antibiotics in China until July of this year. Until that time, 10 of the country's 15 best-selling medicines were antibiotics. More than 50 percent treatment costs for Chinese inpatients goes to various kinds of antibiotics, while the figure in Western countries is just 15 to 30 percent.

(China.org.cn, Xinhua News Agency October 10, 2004)