Superbugs take their toll on humans
Excessive and improper use of antibiotics has taken its toll on humans, with disease-causing bacteria developing increasing drug resistance.
The best known of the 'superbugs' - the methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA or golden staph) - has infected thousands of people and claimed three lives since last year. It has also started to spread into the community.
Medical experts said MRSA, which is now resistant to many common antibiotics, could be treated with penicillin in the 1940s and 1950s, but the abuse of drugs worldwide had turned it into a fatal superbug.
In Hong Kong, heavy use of strong antibiotics was also seen during the Sars outbreak in 2003, when some doctors used antibiotics, especially for patients with lung infections, to shorten their stay in hospital.
At Queen Mary Hospital, use of one of the most powerful antibiotics, carbapenem, rose 71 per cent between 2001 and 2003. A HK$10 million programme was launched last year to monitor the use of antibiotics in 16 public hospitals.
Inappropriate use of antibiotics at public hospitals has since dropped from 17 per cent in November 2005 to 8 per cent last October.
