The China Food and Drug Administration (CFDA) on Wednesday warned that the Chinese public knows worryingly little about safe medication.

CFDA spokeswoman Yan Jiangying said at a press conference that this conclusion was reached based on a recent analysis of over 200,000 questionnaires, which showed that Chinese lack understanding of safe medication, and even have serious misunderstandings.

Yan said 51 percent of respondents to the questionnaire did not know that chloramphenicol and other antibiotics should be used with caution on newborn babies, while over 50 percent of respondents thought medicines' expiration date would be unaffected by the opening of their packaging.

Such misunderstandings will damage people's health in the long term and even lead to death, the spokeswoman said, adding that the authority will work harder to educate people on medical science.

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