Pharmaceutical drug use principle issued

National Health and Family Planning Commission of China has released 10 guiding principles of pharmaceutical drug use for the reference of medical workers and residents, Xinhua reports. aYao Hongwen, a spokesman for the commission, said that the urban and rural residents in China generally lack medication knowledge. Therefore, 10 pieces of instruction for pharmaceutical drug use are formulated to normalize the medicine market in China, Yao added. Among the 10 guidelines are the following lines of advice: - Use essential drugs as priority - Health supplements are not an alternative to medicine - Take no medication if none is required. If you do need to take any, take only as much as needed to treat the ailment. Consider oral drugs over intramuscular injections; consider intramuscular injections over an intravenous drip.