Australia is facing what experts describe as a "silent pandemic", with an estimated 100 people dying every week from antibiotic-resistant infections — a toll that places antimicrobial resistance (AMR) among the nation's most urgent public health threats.
According to reporting by the Daily Mail and The Sydney Morning Herald (SMH), the warning was issued this week by the Australian Centre for Disease Control (ACDC), which said AMR is accelerating at an alarming pace both domestically and globally.
AMR occurs when bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites no longer respond to antimicrobial medicines. Once treatable infections can become life-threatening, and routine medical procedures — from caesarean sections to chemotherapy — become riskier.
Data released by the ACDC shows that reports of critical antibiotic resistance in Australia rose by more than 25 percent in 2024, climbing from 2,706 cases in 2023 to 3,389 in 2024.
More than 5,000 Australian deaths were associated with AMR in 2019 alone — equivalent to around 100 deaths each week — according to combined analysis from the Global Research on Antimicrobial Resistance Report, MTPConnect and CSIRO, as cited by the Daily Mail.
The crisis is not confined to Australia, though.
A landmark 2018 report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) projected that global deaths from drug-resistant infections could reach 10 million annually by 2050 if urgent action is not taken.
The World Health Organization has repeatedly ranked AMR among the top ten global public health threats facing humanity.
In Australia, the danger is becoming more visible inside hospitals.
The ACDC reported that multidrug-resistant bacteria were present in 12.2 percent of bloodstream infections in children — affecting 222 young patients. Even more concerning, fewer than half of the antibiotics administered after surgery were deemed appropriate.
Limited access to cutting-edge drugs
Newborns and critically ill patients are particularly vulnerable.
Associate Professor Phoebe Williams, a paediatrician and infectious diseases physician, told SMH she now regularly encounters superbug infections in neonatal intensive care units — cases that were rare less than a decade ago.
"Now we see them monthly, sometimes weekly," she said, describing desperate searches through research papers for last-resort antibiotic combinations to save premature babies.
Williams warned that AMR is evolving faster than new medications can be developed.
"In children, the problem is exacerbated; we have even less access to new antibiotics that are only licensed [for] adult patients," she said.
In one instance, a colleague had to obtain an antibiotic from an adult pharmacy to treat a critically ill premature baby.
"Without that antibiotic, that baby was going to die."
Access to cutting-edge drugs remains limited.
Of the 25 novel antibiotics approved in the United States and Europe since 2011, only three are registered for use in Australia, according to the Australian Antimicrobial Resistance Network (AAMRNet), as reported by SMH.
Clinicians are increasingly forced to seek special approvals.
A recent analysis found doctors submit around 500 applications each month to access antibiotics not registered in Australia, where more than a quarter of these requests are for critically ill patients.
