Chinese medicine into the breach

By Steven Clavey

Last month, China’s Ministry of Health revealed that each Chinese person consumes on average 138 g of antibiotics a year – 10 times the amount consumed per capita in the U.S. Three times as many Chinese people are prescribed penicillin compared with the international standard. Seventy per cent of inpatients at Chinese hospitals receive antibiotics; the World Health Organisation recommends a maximum of 30 per cent.