China recently issued its first national guideline on the clinical use of antibacterial medicines, China’s Health Ministry said in Beijing Saturday.

The guideline classified antibacterial drugs into three types based on their clinical effects and safety and asked hospitals to adopt different prescription rules for each type, Wang Yu, a senior official with the Health Ministry said at a press briefing.

The guideline also set up principles for the application of antibacterial drugs in disease treatment and prevention as well as the use of antibiotics under special pathologic and physical conditions, Wang said.

Antibacterial drugs have been in clinical use for about 70 years and saved millions of lives. But the side effects of antibiotics and the growing antibiotic resistance caused by the abuse of the drugs have brought about increasingly serious problems.