Wholesale Supply Data of Antibiotics in Hong Kong (2018)

Release date: 3 July 2020

Introduction

The HKSAR Government attaches great importance to the threat of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and has launched the Hong Kong Strategy and Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance (2017 - 2022) (Action Plan) in 2017 to combat the problem. 

The Action Plan sets out monitoring of antibiotics usage as one of the strategic actions because at that time there was not a mechanism to obtain territory-wide antibiotics usage data, wholesale supply data of antibiotics might serve as a proxy to reflect the usage. Hence, the Department of Health (DH) conducted an exercise in 2017 to collect the annual wholesale supply quantities of all the registered antibiotics classified under the World Health Organization (WHO) Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical (ATC) classification code J01, the Antibacterials for Systemic Use, through antibiotic product registration certificate holders and licensed drug wholesalers. The first-ever territory-wide report of antibiotics supplied to different sectors based on the wholesale supply data (2014 - 2016) was published in April 2018 at the CHP website. 

Since then, collecting the wholesale supply data of antibiotics through antibiotic product registration certificate holders and licensed drug wholesalers has been regularised as an ongoing annual surveillance exercise and DH published the 2017 wholesale supply results in July 2019 together with the 2014 - 2016 results for easy reference. The 2018 wholesale supply data was subsequently collected and compiled. Errors reported by wholesalers in previous two data collection exercises have been corrected. The results in this third report are the most up-to-date versions.

Methodology

At the beginning of every year, DH collected wholesale supply data through a standardised electronic questionnaire from antibiotic product registration certificate holders and licensed drug wholesalers who distributed antibiotics in the previous year. They were requested to provide wholesale data of relevant antibiotics to eight sectors including DH, Hospital Authority (HA), private hospitals, private doctors (mutually exclusive with private hospitals), dentists, veterinary surgeons, community pharmacies and farmers. Since the Action Plan was published in 2017 and hence the situation of 2016 has been chosen as baseline for comparison where appropriate

Classes of Antibiotics Covered

As suggested in the document, namely, WHO methodology for a global programme on surveillance of antimicrobial consumption (version 1.0, which can be accessed here), a core set of antibiotics should be included in the surveillance:

External use topical preparations are excluded in the surveillance as suggested by WHO.

Quantification of Antibiotic Usage

Results were analyzed and presented as defined daily dose (DDD), the most commonly used metric for measurement and reporting of drug utilisation internationally. It is also adopted by WHO to facilitate drug consumption comparison. It is defined as “the assumed average maintenance dose per day for a drug used for its main indication in adults”. Annual DDD per 1,000 inhabitants per day (DID) was calculated to estimate drug use adjusted for annual difference in population. DID is also commonly adopted by overseas health authorities to reflect the national consumption trend.

Key Findings

The overall local wholesale supply of antibiotics for human use in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 were 22.11, 22.47, 23.58, 21.53 and 21.66 DID respectively, with a decrease of 8.2% from 2016 to 2018 but a slight increase of 0.6% from 2017 to 2018 was observed. 

The top three classes of antibiotics with the highest volume of wholesale supply in 2018 were: “beta-lactam antibacterials, penicillins” (11.29 DID, 52.14% of the overall supply); “macrolides, lincosamides and streptogramins” (2.87 DID, 13.26%) and “quinolone antibacterials” (2.33 DID, 10.75%). They accounted for about 76.14% of overall local antibiotics supply to human in 2018. Quinolone antibacterials have taken over from ‘other beta-Lactam antibacterials’ as the third highest supplied class. 

The top three sectors supplied with the largest proportion of overall antibiotics in 2018 were private doctors (55.1%), HA (23.3%) and community pharmacies (8.0%). 

Fourteen locally important broad spectrum antibiotics, normally reserved for resistant infections, only accounted for 1.64% of the total supply in HK in 2018, majority of them (99.46%) were supplied to hospitals.

Analysis

According to the results, the top three classes of antibiotics with the highest volume of wholesale supply were antibiotic groups that are being used to treat common bacterial infections in both community and hospital settings. They are usually prescribed as first-line treatment for suspected bacterial infections. 

The broad spectrum antibiotics only accounted for a very small proportion of the total local supply (1.64%). The majority of them were supplied to HA and private hospitals. This distribution is expected as these sectors provide secondary and tertiary care (i.e. specialty and in-patient services), in which more vulnerable patients and patients with more resistant infections are being taken care of. 

Private doctors, HA and community pharmacies were the three sectors supplied with the highest volume of antibiotics from 2014 to 2018. As private doctors and HA are the major healthcare providers in community and hospital settings, this result is not unexpected. The proportion of antibiotics supplied to community pharmacies dropped from 18.4% in 2016 to 13.0% in 2017 and 8.0% in 2018. 

In addition, the total wholesale supply of antibiotics in HK decreased from 2016 to 2018 (by 4.31 million DDD, about 6.79%) but a slight increase by 1.56% (0.91 million DDD) was observed in 2018 when compared with that of 2017. 

The decrease in supply to community pharmacies (7.04 million DDD reduction) was the main contributing factor to the overall decrease in 2018 when compared with the situation in 2016. This may be contributed by efforts spent by DH into series of publicity campaigns to raise the public awareness of AMR, appeal of judicious use of antibiotics amongst all stakeholders, and the issuance of the Guidance Notes on Antibiotic Use. At the same time, DH has also stepped up the enhanced regulatory actions against illegal sale of antibiotics without prescription.

Limitations

This exercise was based on wholesale supply data, which has not taken into account factors such as natural wastage, stakeholders disposal of expired products and procurement of non-registered drugs through name-patient basis. Wholesale supply data are neither representative of consumption data nor dispensing data; and contain no information to reflect appropriateness of antibiotic use.

The Way Forward

DH has disseminated and discussed the wholesale supply results with the relevant stakeholders. DH would continue the health education and promotion through various media to raise the general awareness of AMR and advocate the Guidance Notes on Antibiotic Use through the Antibiotic Stewardship Programme in Primary Care. On the other hand, DH would take the two-pronged approach, namely education and enhanced enforcement action, against possible illegal sale of antibiotics. Last but not the least, DH would continue the various surveillance exercises and introduce the most appropriate control measures to curb the threat of AMR. 

Wholesale supply data of antibiotics can only provide part of the information of overall situation of antibiotic use, DH will, in joint effort with other government departments and organizations, initiate other surveillance activities to provide a more comprehensive picture on the overall AMR situation in Hong Kong.

Advice

Advice to Public

    • Do not purchase antibiotics without a prescription

    • Do not demand antibiotics from your doctor

    • Follow your doctor’s advice when taking antibiotics

    • To prevent AMR, maintaining good personal hygiene and receiving up-to-date vaccination are equally important

Advice to community pharmacies

    • Only supply antibiotics in accordance with the law

    • Illegal sale of antibiotics is a criminal offence

        – e.g. supply of prescription antibiotics to the general public without the authorization of a prescription

    • The maximum penalty is a fine of $30,000 and 12 months of imprisonment

Advice to healthcare workers

Antibiotics are a precious resource and their effectiveness must be preserved to protect us from infections. Healthcare workers play an essential role in preserving them:

    • Continue to prescribe antibiotics in accordance with therapeutic guidelines in consideration of clinical situations

    • Discuss with your patients about the importance of appropriate antibiotic use and the dangers of AMR

    • Apply best practice of infection prevention and control

    • Talk to your patients about how to prevent infections and their spread

        – e.g. vaccination, maintain good personal hygiene and hand hygiene

Please click here to view the more detailed results.


Please click here to view the Past Reports.