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As of 2019, human antibiotic use in South Korea was the third highest among Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) member states. The government is pushing for a 20% reduction of human antibiotic usage and a 10% reduction of sales of nonhuman antibiotics (for use in livestock and fish) by 2025. The move is aimed at protecting the public from bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics.

These goals are part of Korea’s second antibiotic resistance management plan, which the Ministry of Health and Welfare announced on Sunday it had drawn up with related ministries following approval from a panel of experts on antibiotic resistance and the Infectious Disease Management Committee.

Korea’s goals are to reduce antibiotic usage from the current level of 26.1 DID (defined daily doses per 1,000 inhabitants per day) to 20.9 DID — a decrease of 20% — and to reduce the amount of nonhuman antibiotic usage from 217 milligrams per kilogram of livestock (in PCU, or population correction units) per year to 195 mg — a decrease of 10% — by 2025.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare explained that Korea’s human antibiotic usage of 26.1 DID as of 2019 was the third highest in the OECD. Other countries are considerably lower: Ireland stands at 21.7 DID, Finland at 14.7 DID, and the Netherlands at 9.5 DID. A 2017 study in the journal Science found that Korea’s antibiotic dosage in livestock (188 mg per PCU) ranged from 140% to 570% higher than major countries such as Japan (78 mg) and Denmark (28 mg).

By Lee Jae-ho, staff reporter

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