The past decade has seen more than half of outpatients in China prescribed antibiotics, a level far above that recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), the organization said in a Monday report.

A new survey commissioned by the WHO for the first-ever World Antibiotic Awareness Week, which began Monday, shows that public awareness of antibiotics and their use is low in China.

Some 61 percent of respondents in China believed antibiotics were effective against colds and the flu, despite the fact that antibiotics have no impact on viruses.

About 35 percent of those surveyed said they thought antibiotics were effective against headaches.

"Antibiotics are a crucial part of modern medicine, but they have become victims of their own success. As a result of overuse and misuse of antibiotics by both doctors and patients, antibiotic resistance is now a gravely serious global health problem, including here in China," said Dr Bernhard Schwartländer, WHO representative in China.

"Antibiotic resistance affects us all. It means infections which were once easily cured are becoming harder to treat, and common surgical procedures such as caesarian sections and appendix removals could become life-threatening due to the risk of untreatable infections," Dr Schwartländer explained.

China's National Health and Family Planning Commission started to launch regular campaigns to crack down on the inappropriate use of antibiotics for clinical use in 2011. Doctors who violate the rules are warned or have their licenses revoked.

However, the WHO has said more needs to be done to address the problem, both by healthcare professionals and patients.