March 13th, 2023Silent pandemic: new report charts path for curbing antimicrobial resistance

A report released late last month outlines the challenges Australia and the world need to overcome to avoid being thrust back into a pre-antimicrobial age where simple infections are deadly and some surgeries are too risky to perform.

Australia is seeing a growing ‘silent pandemic’ of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) – when bacteria and other microbes become resistant to the drugs designed to kill them, such as antibiotics, usually from misuse or overuse.

The report, Curbing antimicrobial resistance: A technology-powered, human-driven approach to combating the ‘silent pandemic’, calls for greater national coordination and a focus on streamlining commercialisation processes for new antimicrobial resistance solutions and technologies.

It was developed by the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ATSE) and initiated by CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency.

Branwen Morgan, Lead of CSIRO’s Minimising Antimicrobial Resistance Mission, said AMR was recently designated one of the top 10 public health threats facing humanity by the World Health Organization (WHO).

“AMR could render some of the most critical antimicrobial drugs ineffective, undermining modern medicine and making us vulnerable to drug-resistant infections,” Dr Morgan said.

“It is responsible for over 1.27 million deaths globally each year and the number is rising.

“In Australia, modelling suggests AMR could potentially be responsible for over 5000 deaths annually.