Luo Yijun said that antimicrobial resistance involves human health, animal health and environmental safety, and we will continue to implement antimicrobial resistance prevention and control from all aspects through the national "epidemic prevention integrated" antimicrobial resistance management action plan and in conjunction with relevant departments.
The threat of bacterial resistance has continued to rise in recent years. The World Health Organization (WHO) points out that more than 4.79 million deaths worldwide are related to bacterial resistance every year. Luo Yijun, director of the Department of Disease Control and Prevention, said that in order to avoid overuse of antibiotics and increase bacterial resistance, the Ministry of Health and Welfare set five major annual indicators, which reached "3 good and 2 bad" at the end of last year. Although the three superbug-related indicators were all met, the amount of antibiotics did not decrease but increased by 10% compared with the base year.
Luo Yijun pointed out that in order to reduce the use of antibiotics in my country and respond to the threat of bacterial resistance, my country has approved the "National Antibiotic Resistance Management Action Plan for Anti-epidemic Prevention" in 2013, and set five important performance indicators, including reducing the use of antibiotics by 1% every year, reducing the incidence of CRAB infections by 2%, reducing the incidence of MRSA infections by 3%, limiting the increase in the incidence of CRE infections by 3%, and reducing medical care-related infections in intensive care units by 2%.
Regarding the actual achievement of the plan, Luo Yijun said that last year was the first year of implementation of the plan, and the achievement was "3 good and 2 bad." Among them, three indicators of super bacteria CRAB, MRSA, and CRE all met the standards. However, the use of antibiotics increased by 10.4% compared with the base year of 112, and the reduction in medical care-related infections in the intensive care unit was only 0.2%, which did not meet the planned reduction.
Luo Yijun said that the reason why the use of antibiotics increased instead of decreasing last year may be related to the immune debt after the epidemic. Respiratory epidemics such as COVID-19 and influenza broke out from time to time, and the aging population also intensified the threat of infectious diseases to immunocompromised groups such as those with chronic diseases and cancer chemotherapy. Therefore, doctors continue to face the dilemma of whether to use antibiotics.
Therefore, Luo Yijun said that in the future, we will continue to control respiratory epidemics by increasing the vaccination rate and reduce the need for primary-care doctors to use antibiotics during viral infection epidemics. We will also continue to strengthen publicity and publicity on the medical side, calling for the correct use of antibiotics, and implement the "4 Don'ts", that is, do not buy it yourself, do not actively ask for a prescription, do not stop taking medicine at will, do not share it with others, and follow the doctor's instructions to use medicine correctly.
Luo Yijun also mentioned that the overall influenza and COVID-19 epidemics this year are lower than last year, but it remains to be seen whether the dosage of antibiotics will decrease as a result. In the future, in the face of an aging population, multiple chronic diseases, and increased demand for severe cases, infection control in hospitals will also be strengthened, and hand washing and disinfection will be increased to reduce the risk of infection from both personal and environmental aspects.
