Zhou, Xun (2023) Antibiotic Culture: A History of Antibiotic Use in the Second Half of the 20th and Early 21st Century in the People’s Republic of China. Antibiotics, 12 (3). p. 510. DOI https://doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics12030510
Zhou, Xun (2023) Antibiotic Culture: A History of Antibiotic Use in the Second Half of the 20th and Early 21st Century in the People’s Republic of China. Antibiotics, 12 (3). p. 510. DOI https://doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics12030510
Zhou, Xun (2023) Antibiotic Culture: A History of Antibiotic Use in the Second Half of the 20th and Early 21st Century in the People’s Republic of China. Antibiotics, 12 (3). p. 510. DOI https://doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics12030510
Abstract
Antimicrobial resistance is now widely regarded as a global public health threat. A growing number of studies suggest that antibiotic resistance is higher in China than in most western countries. Despite the current official regulation prohibiting pharmacies from the unrestricted selling of antibiotics, there is little sign of declining consumer demand. China now ranks as the second largest consumer of antibiotics in the world, after India. Drawing on published historical data, unpublished archival documents, and recently collected oral interviews, this paper provides a historical overview of antibiotic use and abuse in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) from the second half of the 20th century to the present. It demonstrates how the political demand for health improvement, along with the state-sponsored popularization of allopathic medicine, on the one hand, and the lack of access to adequate medical care for the majority of the population, as well as the existing culture of self-medication, on the other hand, are working in tandem to create antibiotic dependency in China. In addition, the privatization and marketization of biomedicine and health care in post-Mao China have helped to build a new and ever-thriving network of production, distribution, and marketing of antibiotics, which has often proven difficult for the authorities to monitor. At the same time, increased purchasing power and easier accessibility created by this new network of production, distribution, and marketing have further contributed to the prevalence of antibiotic overuse in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Item Type: | Article |
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Additional Information: | This article belongs to the Special Issue Antibiotics Use and Stewardship in China |
Uncontrolled Keywords: | history of antibiotic development; culture of drug consumption; self-medication; politics of health; antibiotic overuse; marketization of health; health care access; animal welfare; China |
Subjects: | Z Bibliography. Library Science. Information Resources > ZZ OA Fund (articles) |
Divisions: | Faculty of Arts and Humanities Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Philosophical, Historical and Interdisciplinary Studies, School of |
SWORD Depositor: | Unnamed user with email elements@essex.ac.uk |
Depositing User: | Unnamed user with email elements@essex.ac.uk |
Date Deposited: | 07 Mar 2023 13:01 |
Last Modified: | 07 Aug 2024 20:21 |
URI: | http://repository.essex.ac.uk/id/eprint/35073 |
Available files
Filename: antibiotics-12-00510 published.pdf
Licence: Creative Commons: Attribution 4.0