Connect
MJA
MJA

The risk of resistance: what are the major antimicrobial resistance threats facing Australia?

Deborah A Williamson, Benjamin P Howden and David L Paterson
Med J Aust 2019; 211 (3): . || doi: 10.5694/mja2.50249
Published online: 5 August 2019

Collaborative systems are required to combat the rising challenge of antimicrobial resistance in health care facilities and the community

These germs of disease have taken toll of humanity since the beginning of things—taken toll of our prehuman ancestors since life began here. But by virtue of this natural selection of our kind we have developed resisting power; to no germs do we succumb without a struggle …


  • 1 Microbiological Diagnostic Unit Public Health Laboratory, Melbourne, VIC
  • 2 Melbourne Health, Melbourne, VIC
  • 3 Centre for Clinical Research, University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD
  • 4 Infectious Diseases Unit, Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital, Brisbane, QLD



Acknowledgements: 

Deborah Williamson is supported by a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Early Career Fellowship (GNT1123854). Benjamin Howden is supported by an NHMRC Practitioner Fellowship (GNT1105905).

Competing interests:

David Patterson has received research grants or honoraria for participation in advisory boards from Shionogi, MSD, Pfizer, Achaogen, Entasis Therapeutics and Accelerate Diagnostics.

  • 1. Interagency Coordination Group on Antimicrobial Resistance. No time to wait: securing the future from drug‐resistant infections. Report to the Secretary‐General of the United Nations. April 2019. https://www.who.int/antimicrobial-resistance/interagency-coordination-group/final-report/en/ (viewed May 2019).
  • 2. Tacconelli E, Carrara E, Savoldi A, et al. Discovery, research, and development of new antibiotics: the WHO priority list of antibiotic‐resistant bacteria and tuberculosis. Lancet Inf Dis 2018; 18: 318–327.
  • 3. Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care. CARAlert data update 10 – 1 November 2018 to 31 December 2018. Sydney: ACSQHC, 2019. https://www.safetyandquality.gov.au/publications/caralert-data-update-10-1-november-to-31-december-2018/ (viewed Apr 2019).
  • 4. Kwong JC, Lane CR, Romanes F, et al. Translating genomics into practice for real‐time surveillance and response to carbapenemase‐producing Enterobacteriaceae: evidence from a complex multi‐institutional KPC outbreak. PeerJ 2018; 6: e4210.
  • 5. Roberts LW, Harris PN, Ben Zakour NL, et al. Genomic investigation of an outbreak of carbapenemase‐producing Enterobacter cloacae: long‐read sequencing reveals the context of blaIMP4 on a widely distributed IncHI2 plasmid. BioRxiv 2017; https://doi.org/10.1101/172536.
  • 6. Eyre DW, Sheppard AE, Madder H, et al. A Candida auris outbreak and its control in an intensive care setting. N Engl J Med 2018; 379: 1322–1331.
  • 7. Jeffery‐Smith A, Taori SK, Schelenz S, et al. Candida auris: a review of the literature. Clin Microbiol Rev 2018; 31: e00029–17.
  • 8. Heath CH, Dyer JR, Pang S, et al. Candida auris sternal osteomyelitis in a man from Kenya visiting Australia, 2015. Emerg Infect Dis 2019; 25: 192–194.
  • 9. World Health Organization. Disease outbreak news: Typhoid fever – Islamic Republic of Pakistan. https://www.who.int/csr/don/27-december-2018-typhoid-pakistan/en/ (viewed Apr 2019).
  • 10. Qamar FN, Yousafzai MT, Khalid M, et al. Outbreak investigation of ceftriaxone‐resistant Salmonella enterica serotype Typhi and its risk factors among the general population in Hyderabad, Pakistan: a matched case–control study. Lancet Infect Dis 2018; 18: 1368–1376.
  • 11. Klemm EJ, Shakoor S, Page AJ, et al. Emergence of an extensively drug‐resistant Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi clone harboring a promiscuous plasmid encoding resistance to fluoroquinolones and third‐generation cephalosporins. mBio 2018; 9: e00105–18.
  • 12. Jennison AV, Whiley D, Lahra MM, et al. Genetic relatedness of ceftriaxone‐resistant and high‐level azithromycin resistant Neisseria gonorrhoeae cases, United Kingdom and Australia, February to April 2018. Euro Surveil 2019; 24: 1900118.
  • 13. Australian Government Department of Health. National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System. http://www9.health.gov.au/cda/source/cda-index.cfm (viewed Apr 2019).
  • 14. Williamson DA, Kirk MD, Sintchenko V, Howden BP. The importance of public health genomics to ensure health security for Australia. Med J Aust 2019; 210: 295–297. https://www.mja.com.au/journal/2019/210/7/importance-public-health-genomics-ensuring-health-security-australia.
  • 15. Australian Government Department of Health and Department of Agriculture and Water Resources. Implementation plan: Australia's first National Antimicrobial Resistance Strategy 2015–2019. Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia, 2016. https://www.amr.gov.au/resources/national-amr-implementation-plan (viewed Apr 2019).

Author

remove_circle_outline Delete Author
add_circle_outline Add Author

Comment
Do you have any competing interests to declare? *

I/we agree to assign copyright to the Medical Journal of Australia and agree to the Conditions of publication *
I/we agree to the Terms of use of the Medical Journal of Australia *
Email me when people comment on this article

Online responses are no longer available. Please refer to our instructions for authors page for more information.