S. Korea to reduce antibiotic usage, combat antimicrobial resistance

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The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency announced on Tuesday that South Korea would participate in the World Health Organization-organized program to monitor antimicrobial use from this year.

The WHO's Global Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance System and the Global Antimicrobial Use Surveillance System aims to protect the public from bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics.

Antibiotic overuse can lead to resistance in bacteria, causing the drugs to become less effective, as well as a variety of other serious health problems such as Clostridium difficile infections, yeast infections, and allergic reactions, according to the KDCA.

The WHO’s Global Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance System was launched in 2015 to foster antimicrobial resistance (AMR) surveillance and inform strategies to contain AMR.

The system started with surveillance of AMR in bacteria causing common human infections and has expanded its scope to include surveillance of antimicrobial consumption (AMC). Therefore, the WHO has operated the Global Antimicrobial Use Surveillance System from 2020.

Through this system, the WHO collects data from the member countries to monitor the AMR burden. As of last year, 127 countries participated in those systems.

South Korea has participated in the WHO Global Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance System since 2017, and Korea has just decided to join its Antimicrobial Use Surveillance System this year. The WHO's Global Antimicrobial Use Surveillance System shows the average number of individuals per 1000 inhabitants on antimicrobial treatment each day (DID) by countries, according to the KDCA.

“It is meaningful that we participate in a series of international efforts to combat antibiotic resistance. We hope that we take a step forward in reducing antibiotic resistance by participating in this program,” the KDCA said.

Korea is combating antibiotic resistance and trying to reduce the use of antibiotics. The Korean government announced in 2021 that it would push for a 20 percent reduction in human antibiotic use and a 10 percent reduction in sales of nonhuman antibiotics -- mainly in livestock and fish -- by 2025.

As of 2019, human antibiotic use in South Korea was the third-highest among Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development member states.

Korea’s human antibiotic usage was 26.1 DID as of 2019. Other countries were considerably lower: Ireland stood at 21.7 DID, Finland at 14.7 DID, and the Netherlands at 9.5 DID.