[Editorial] Prescribing trouble: pediatric antibiotics in Korea

A government body responsible for health insurance oversight has discovered that children under the age of seven are prescribed antibiotics far more frequently than the population as a whole. Twenty-three out of 1,000 people are prescribed antibiotics each day, but 45 out of 1,000 children are, too. Perhaps it is unavoidable that children and elderly persons, who have weaker immune systems, are issued more antibiotics. But Korea already issues more of the stuff than just about any other place in the world, and it is even worse that far more of these drugs are being prescribed to children, who need to be developing their immune systems naturally. As their bodies’ resistance to antibiotics grows, so too grows a problem for the future of the country.

The resistant bacteria produced by abusing antibiotics is already serious. In Denmark, the antibiotics usually used for Staphylococcus aureus produces a tolerance rate in the single digits, but in our case it is 70 percent. Vancomycin, known as the strongest antibiotic, produces a 15 percent resistance rate in Korea. And how could it only be a problem for people? In Korea, the resistance rate to antibiotics of viral strains that are found in livestock, sea products, processed foods, the soil, and underground water is far greater than what it is in advanced countries. When the international community warns that the world might face a pandemic that antibiotics can't fix, it is talking about the kind of situation brewing in Korea.

The country has yet to be doing enough to correct this calamitous reality. A full 80 percent of the antibiotics that were part of this recent government study were prescribed by small neighborhood clinics, and one third were prescribed in internal medicine. What that means is that Korea still habitually prescribes antibiotics for infections. In the United States, they do not issue antibiotics for colds, and in Australia, doctors who prescribe them have to report their reason in written statements. Korea could reduce its misuse and abuse of antibiotics simply by reducing how often the drugs are issued for colds.

Last year, for the first time ever, health authorities disclosed figures on how often cold patients are given antibiotics. Since then, the rate at which they're issued has gone down, but there is still a long way to go. There needs to be greater social oversight through the requirement of wider and more detailed disclosure, including statistical data. In addition, the government needs to be able to reduce how much is paid to clinics and hospitals for pharmaceuticals if they are found to be using antibiotics inappropriately. We cannot continue to entrust our children's health to antibiotics.

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