It’s the same in China. My wife’s family is from there, and they hand out antibiotics for everything. Everyone seems to have a stash of them as well.
When my in-laws were visiting Australia for a couple of months and my wife’s mother got a minor cold, she started demanding we get her some antibiotics. We tried to explain that there’s no way a doctor would prescribe them for a minor sniffle, and she totally went if the deep end, acting as if she was going to die if she didn’t get them. But in the end, she survived.
Same. Every doc relative would have some, despite their current crackdown on antibiotics prescribing online (not sales -- you can still fudge some paper and get it done).
The most striking thing about antibiotics use is not human use, however. Colistin, mentioned in the article, became the last line of defense against resistant bacteria while China was still liberally giving it to livestock. Thankfully use of this one is going to end…
When my in-laws were visiting Australia for a couple of months and my wife’s mother got a minor cold, she started demanding we get her some antibiotics. We tried to explain that there’s no way a doctor would prescribe them for a minor sniffle, and she totally went if the deep end, acting as if she was going to die if she didn’t get them. But in the end, she survived.