<div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Disease resistance to antibiotics is rising faster than medical advances can keep up with, potentially putting billions around the world in danger.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The World Health Organisation's Global Antibiotic Resistance Surveillance Report found that one in six laboratory-confirmed bacterial infections that caused common conditions in people worldwide in 2023, were resistant to antibiotic treatments.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Between 2018 and 2023, the report found antibiotic resistance in people rose 40 per cent, or 5 to 15 per cent each year.</span></div></div><div><div id="adspot-mobile-medium"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/israel-gaza-update-donald-trump-addresses-israeli-knesset-calls-for-benjamin-netanyahu-pardon/3c63614b-9899-4340-bf0f-29b4a6f43dad" target="_blank"><strong><span>Joy, relief and jubilation as Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners and detainees given freedom</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Anita Williams, from the Centre for Child Health Research at the University of Western Australia, said the findings were "alarming but not surprising".</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"Thankfully, the proportion of resistance in Australian children is lower than global averages," she said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"Whilst globally 45 per cent of E coli were resistant to 3rd generation cephalosporins, in Australian children it was only 21.5 per cent. For methicillin-resistant staph aureus (MRSA), globally it was 27.1 per cent, whilst in Australian children it was 13.6 per cent."</span></div></div><div><div class="OUTBRAIN" data-reactroot="" data-src="//www.9news.com.au/national/antibiotic-resistance-rising-in-children-around-the-world-australian-experts-say-whats-next/07458f7b-59b9-4138-a582-5e4b37cd924f" data-widget-id="AR_5"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/australia-weather-update-south-eastern-temperatures-vary-wildly/8390caa8-e0e2-447f-ac56-00d77c6f10cf" target="_blank"><strong><span>Whip-sawing temperatures to see millions bake while others freeze</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>However, she said, antibiotic resistance from bacteria in children was nonetheless on the rise in the country.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Professor Mark Blaskovich from the Institute for Molecular Bioscience said that the nearby South East Asia region had one of the highest levels of resistance at 31 per cent, which posed a potential danger of transmission to travellers.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"Particularly worrying is the finding that some of our more powerful antibiotics are being used more widely than they should be, meaning that resistance to these important antibiotics will continue to develop more quickly than it should, leading to their obsolescence," he said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/warm-and-loving-teen-thom-hosking-killed-on-way-to-school-was-days-from-starting-his-first-job/d86a67af-aee8-4e9a-8fd3-8efa523cf1aa" target="_blank"><strong><span>'Warm and loving' teen killed on way to school was days from starting his first job</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"This leads to the need for new antibiotics, but as outlined in another recent WHO report, the development pipeline for new antibacterial agents is sparsely populated.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"While Australia is doing relatively well compared to the rest of the world, it must not be complacent and should commit to funding research that combats antibiotic resistance."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Multiple experts noted that in countries with weaker health systems - usually poorer countries - the problem was, but that the current hyper-connectivity of the world meant transmission of resistant bacteria could happen very easily.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"Because about five million deaths were associated with antimicrobial resistance (not just antibiotics, but also antivirals and antifungals)," Associate Professor Sanjaya Senanayake from The Australian National University said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"By 2050, this could reach 10 million deaths a year and have a negative impact on global GDP with global losses of US$100 trillion ($153.4 trillion)."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>He and others rejected the idea that tightening prescription requirements for antibiotics was a catch-all solution.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"It is not just an issue of doctors prescribing antibiotics inappropriately. Instead, it also includes the vast spectrum of antimicrobial use not just in humans, but also in animals and plants, the use of the unprescribed over-the-counter antibiotics, the contamination of waterways with antibiotics, and the development of new antibiotics," he said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"Developing new antibiotics, however, is not cost-effective for businesses, so they require healthy government subsidies to make it attractive for pharmaceutical companies."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Reece Pharmaceuticals chief executive James Graham said most antibiotic classes had been discovered between the 1940s and 1980s.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"This innovation gap is colliding with escalating global resistance, leaving doctors with fewer options and patients at greater risk," he said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"Infections that were once easily treated now mean longer hospital stays, higher treatment costs, and, in some cases, preventable amputations such as those seen in diabetic foot infections."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Associate Professor Andreea Molnar from Swinburne University of Technology laid out the problem starkly, saying without effective antibiotics, even "routine" surgeries were "dangerously risky".</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>While multiple experts are calling for better surveillance and increased incentives from government, Dr Trent Yarwood of the Australasian Society for Infectious Diseases, said everybody had a part to play.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"Prevent infections by washing your hands, getting vaccinated and practising good food safety," he said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"Only take antibiotics when they are necessary and only for as long as is recommended by your doctor."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/how-to-follow-9news-digital/29855bb1-ad3d-4c38-bc25-3cb52af1216f" target="_blank"><strong><em><span>DOWNLOAD THE 9NEWS APP</span></em></strong></a><strong><em><span>: Stay across all the latest in breaking news, sport, politics and the weather via our news app and get notifications sent straight to your smartphone. 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