China recently issued its first national guideline on the clinical use of antibacterial medicines, China's Health Ministry said Saturday.

The guideline classified antibacterial drugs into three types based on their clinical effects and safety and asked hospitals to adopt different prescription rules for each type, Wang Yu, a senior official with the Health Ministry said at a press briefing.

The guideline also set up principles for the application of antibacterial drugs in disease treatment and prevention as well as the use of antibiotics under special pathologic and physical conditions, Wang said.

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 brought about increasingly serious problems. 

 Wang said antibiotic resistance caused needless human suffering and death and increased health care costs. "The situation in China cannot be too optimistic," he said.

Statistics from the Health Ministry showed that among 225 death cases caused by inappropriate use of medicines, 97 were related to antibacterial drugs, 43 percent of the total death toll.

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

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

(Xinhua News Agency October 10, 2004)