BEIJING - China's reckless use of antibiotics in the health system and agricultural production is creating an explosion of drug-resistant superbugs that risk global health, according to scientists.

Chinese doctors routinely hand out multiple doses of antibiotics for sore throats and farmers' excessive dependence on the drugs has tainted the food chain.

Studies in China show a "frightening" rise in antibiotic-resistant bacteria such as MRSA. There are warnings that new strains of antibiotic-resistant bugs will spread quickly through international air travel and food sourcing.

"We have a lot of data from Chinese hospitals and it shows a very frightening picture of high-level antibiotic resistance," said Dr Andreas Heddini, of the Swedish Institute for Infectious Disease Control.

"There is a real risk that globally we will return to a pre-antibiotic era of medicine, where we face a situation where a number of medical treatment options would no longer be there."

Alarm has been raised by resistance rates of MRSA in Chinese hospitals, which has more than doubled from 30 per cent to 70 per cent, according to Prof Xiao Yonghong of the Institute of Clinical Pharmacology at Beijing University.

Last year researchers found a new strain of MRSA in Chinese pigs imported into Hong Kong and called for urgent studies into its potential to infect humans after the new strain was confirmed in Guangzhou, where many of the pigs were farmed.

A Beijing-based health expert with access to unpublished surveys showed that the situation in China was actually worse than earlier studies had indicated.

"The Chinese ministry of health has all the data but seems unable or unwilling to believe it," the expert said. "The situation has global implications and is highly disturbing."

The Chinese ministry of health failed to respond to requests for an interview or information over three days. New prescription guidelines to restrict antibiotic use were issued by the ministry in 2004.

"The guidelines are not being followed effectively," said Prof Xiao. "Over just the last five years, for example, our studies show the rate antibiotic-resistant E-coli has quadrupled from 10 per cent to 40 per cent."

Public health experts say the over-use of antibiotics is primarily caused by an under-funded health system where hospitals derive up to half of their operating income from selling drugs.

"In Chinese hospitals our data shows that 60 per cent of in-patients are being prescribed antibiotics compared with the World Health Organization guideline of 30 per cent," added Prof Xiao, who heads China's National Antibiotic Resistance Investigation Network.

China's state food and drug administration bans the sale of antibiotics without a prescription but The Daily Telegraph found the drugs were still easily obtainable over the counter.

Three out of five chemists agreed to sell antibiotics after a cursory consultation with the "patient" who complained of a sore throat.

At one outlet a pharmacist handed over a course of the second-generation antibiotic, Cefuroxime Axetil, with minimal hesitation. Asked if the sale could "get her into trouble" she said that the pharmacy would get a doctor to write the prescription later to cover its sales records.