New data revealed that South Korea's use of antibiotics is among the highest in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development(OECD).

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency(KDCA) and OECD revealed Monday that residents of South Korea consumed 31-point-eight daily doses per one-thousand inhabitants each day in 2023.

The 2023 figure, the second-highest in the OECD, is an increase from 25-point-seven taken in 2022, one-point-36 times that year's OECD average of 18-point-nine doses.

In 2019, the World Health Organization included antimicrobial resistance(AMR), which occurs when bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites no longer respond to antimicrobial medicines, as one of ten factors that threaten human life.

AMR dilutes the effectiveness of antibiotics and other antimicrobial medicines, and the overuse of antimicrobials accelerates its spread.

The KDCA introduced a trial antimicrobial stewardship program last November in which personnel were dispatched to medical facilities to limit the distribution of antimicrobial medicines to necessary cases and restrict the volume prescribed.