The ministry estimates that an average of 138 grams of antibiotics are used per person on the mainland each year, nearly 10 times the amount in the United States.

Seventy percent of inpatients and 50 percent of outpatients have prescriptions for antibiotics, according to the ministry.

"Without intervention, there may come a time when there are no effective antibiotics left," Zhao said.

Xiao Yonghong, an expert at the Institute of Clinical Pharmacology at Peking University, said at least 80 percent of the antibiotics used on the mainland are not necessary.

"This drives up medicine costs for the patients and the country," Xiao said. "This helps speed up the development of germs resistant to antibiotics, which might cost lives and jeopardize human safety and health."

Xiao said antibiotic resistance is now widespread on the Chinese mainland but the types of antibiotics, and the severity of the issue, vary regionally.

Research has shown that each year, deaths related to antibiotic abuse total 80,000 on the Chinese mainland and cost 80 billion yuan ($13 billion) of the medical budget.

The ministry has now introduced a series of measures, including regulations many said are the most stringent yet, to regulate the clinical use of antibiotics, which now account for 74 percent of total medicine usage, about 20 to 50 percent more than in Western countries.

The regulation will take effect on Aug 1.

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