A recent survey conducted by China Youth Daily showed that despite knowing little about antibiotics, 56.7 percent of respondents store antibiotics in their home. Moreover, 23.4 percent of respondents said that they take antibiotics whenever they feel physically uncomfortable.

The survey also showed that 60.9 percent of respondents believe the public lacks sufficient knowledge about medicine, and considers antibiotics to be a simple cure-all for any disease. 

Qi Xin, a scientist at Tianjin Medical University, suggested that one solution might be curbing excessive prescriptions and curtailing hospitals' reliance on drug sales. Qi pointed out that since antibiotics are classified as prescription drugs, citizens can only get these drugs through prescriptions from doctors. 

Zhang Silai, a pediatric specialist, believes that promotional campaigns could help patients learn about the proper applications of antibiotics. Zhang also emphasizes the necessity of regulation that is proportional to the effects of a given drug; the stronger the drug, the more tightly it should be controlled. Zhang's last recommendation is for the government to increase its control over the use of veterinary antibiotics. Poultry farmers routinely use antibiotics to prevent animals from contracting diseases, but those animals--and the antibiotics in them--later enter people's bodies as food. 

China Youth Daily used online survey platform Wenjuan to administer the survey to a total of 2,001 respondents.