A team of medical volunteers, made up of a medical college professor and his graduate students, last week tested the blood oxygen saturation levels of rural residents in Chenzhou city, Hunan province. They also delivered packages of health kits to people living in remote areas. [Photo by Cao Zhengping/For China Daily]
Local governments should make medicines and antigen test kits readily available in rural areas, according to guidelines released Wednesday.
Guidelines issued by the Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism of the State Council, the country’s COVID-19 control task force, say that fever patients should have immediate access to antigen test kits or nucleic acid tests. Village clinics should have at least a two-week supply of medicines to ensure priority access for vulnerable groups and those in financial difficulty.
Local governments are also tasked with conducting regular tests, delivering medicines, transferring patients to larger hospitals, and raising awareness about epidemic control. However, efforts should also be made to guide them to avoid gatherings and spending time with older relatives with underlying medical conditions.
Media reports of the indiscriminate use of antibiotics and hormones in treating fever patients in rural areas underscore the importance and timeliness of official guidance from health authorities.
Officials attending a conference on COVID-19 control in rural areas last month described China’s countryside as “large, densely populated and resource-poor.”
They warned that the large-scale migration expected for this month’s Chinese New Year will create new challenges for epidemic control in such areas, where large numbers of elderly people live.
Officials also called for more support for the rural health system in terms of medicines, equipment, human resources and funding to improve the system’s capacity to meet the challenges posed by the epidemic.
The spread of COVID-19 in rural areas has put a spotlight on the use of antibiotics and hormone treatments by rural doctors to treat fever patients.
On Dec. 30, the WeChat account Fancaiju praised the long-standing practice of “barefoot doctors” — farmers with minimal basic medical and emergency medical training — to treat fever patients. Article has been published. The article, among other articles shared on social media, said that COVID-19 patients could be treated with antibiotics and other drugs, which could have harmful and fatal side effects. You made a dangerous claim.
Epidemiologists say antibiotics, which can cause deadly allergies, are ineffective in treating COVID-19 and other infections induced by the virus, even if there is clear evidence of bacterial complications. It should be administered to COVID-19 patients only during
Also, long-term use can lead to antibiotic resistance. Worldwide, in 2019, more than 1.2 million people died from antibiotic-resistant infections, according to a peer-reviewed research article published last year in The Lancet. That number has surpassed that of major potentially fatal diseases such as HIV/AIDS and malaria.
Hormonal agents have been used to treat COVID-19 patients in clinical settings, but their use has generally been directed to critically ill patients. Side effects include increased blood sugar, porous bones, and gastrointestinal ulcers.
Earlier this month, the news website gmw.cn, run by mainstream newspaper Kangmyungho, published a commentary criticizing WeChat articles for being misleading and out of touch with rural reality.
The paper said using drugs containing antibiotics to treat unexplained fevers is actually a last resort when drugs temporarily run out and hospitals are overcrowded. Such treatments have never been included in China’s general treatment regimen for COVID-19 patients.
The issue has also raised alarm bells among health officials.
On December 13, authorities in Huangshi City, Hubei Province issued an order disciplining doctors who used such drugs locally to treat COVID-19 patients. The document warned against the use of antibiotics, hormones, and vitamins, and urged local doctors not to prescribe intravenous drips unnecessarily.
A 2020 report published by the National Adverse Drug Reaction Monitoring Information Network said that random use of antibiotics was the leading cause of side effects, but did not specify the percentage. Approximately 30% of such reactions were detected in adults 65 years and older.
