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Antibiotics being overused: DOH

More measures must be taken to stop drug-resistant bacteria passing from farm animals to people, doctors and scientists urged yesterday.

"There is a danger of drug-resistant diseases passing to humans from animals," said Su Ih-ren (蘇益仁), the chief of the clinical study division at the National Health Research Institute.

According to Su, people become more and more vulnerable to certain bacterial infections not only because of overuse of antibiotics themselves. Farmers who abuse antibiotics in order to fatten up animals also threaten people's ability to fight infectious diseases.

"Pigs, poultry and even cattle are getting antibiotics on a daily basis, as husbandry workers want to make them grow faster and control the diseases caused by intensive livestock production," Su said.

A report by the National Health Research Institute showed that some bacteria, such as E. Coli, had developed a high level of resistance against antibiotics in poultry and pigs, because farmers had overfed the drugs to their livestock.

Despite the fact that no valid evidence shows that antibiotics have crossed into the food chain, doctors see the abuse of antibiotics in the livestock industry as "heralding the end of an age of antibiotics."

"Since 2002, we have started to see child patients infected with a kind of enterobacteria -- the typhoid-causing Salmonella. In at least five cases, Salmonella developed a high resistance even against stronger antibiotics," said Chiu Cheng-hsun (邱政洵), a podiatrist at Chang Kung Memorial Hospital.

Chiu said he was worried if the situation worsens with time, antibiotics will soon lose their efficacy.

"People will be especially at risk of an antibiotic-resistant superbug. Once a superbug emerges, a mild bacterial infection may turn out to be fatal," he said.

"The Council of Agriculture must regulate the use of antibiotics in livestock. Animals should not be given antibiotics similar to those used in human medicine," Su said.

The Council of Agriculture yesterday stated that they will ban 10 kinds of antibiotics in the next three years. The authority also said they have developed several reagents to replace popular antibiotics, encouraging farmers and husbandry workers to drop the use of antibiotics in animal husbandry.

Health officials also recommend restraint in antibiotic usage. "Patients often ask their doctors to prescribe antibiotics. But they should be aware that sometimes their illness, say, a flu, is caused by a virus, for which antibiotics do not work," said Wang Hua-kong (王華恭), the chief of the Center for Disease Control's infection control division.
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