According to China Youth Daily, more than one-third of deaf-mute children (under the age of seven) in the country became deaf as a direct result of antibiotic use.
Back in September 2013, I wrote an article about the problem of children being treated as miniature adults in the US when it comes to prescribing drugs. Around 50% of the drugs approved for adults in the US were being used in children, even though their safety and effectiveness had not been established for this use.
It seems the problem is far more acute in China – where less than 2% of the 3,500 categories of drugs are specifically for use by children. Many Chinese drugs come with no information on child dosage, or have broad statements such as “children should use with caution.”
Last week, the children’s services provided by the NHS also came under fire as being “not fit for purpose.” A census of the UK paediatric workforce carried out in September by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health revealed the total number of inpatient units had fallen by 20 to 191, since 2011.
A chronic shortage of paediatricians is at least partially to blame for the problems China too - with 68 children’s hospitals in the country – about one hospital for every 1.5 million Chinese children.
To put this into perspective, the UK has around one paediatric unit per 50,000 children.
|
|
 |
|
|
Share on LinkedIn |
