Plan to address antibiotic overuse
The federal government has launched a campaign aimed at cutting Australians’ overuse of antibiotics which is among the highest in the developed world.
Minister for Health, Sussan Ley, claims Australia’s first Antimicrobial Resistance Strategy will address the decreasing effectiveness of antibiotics due to the rise of resistance in disease causing bacteria.
Widespread and inappropriate antibiotic use in residential aged care facilities has been widely reported.
Older people are reportedly particularly susceptible to the adverse consequences of antibiotic use.
Antimicrobial resistance occurs when bacteria, viruses, parasites and other disease causing organisms become resistant to the medicines used to treat the infections they cause.
In 2013, more than 29 million prescriptions for antibiotics were supplied under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) and Repatriation PBS to over 10 million patients or 45% of Australia’s population.
“The over (use) and misuse of antibiotics has been identified as a significant contributor to the emergence of resistant bacteria,” Minister Ley says.
“The new national approach focuses on measures that will prevent disease causing bacteria from developing resistance to antibiotics as well as driving down the inappropriate use of antibiotics.”
A recent survey showed 65% of Australians believed antibiotics would help them recover from a cold or flu more quickly, one in five people expect antibiotics for colds and flu and nearly 60% of GPs surveyed would prescribe antibiotics to meet patient demands.
“Australia’s consumption of antibiotics is one of the highest among developed countries and well above the OECD average,” Minister Ley says.
Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce says the campaign is also targeted towards monitoring and minimising the development of antimicrobial resistance in livestock.
The release of Australia’s strategy comes following recent discussions at the World Health Assembly on a global strategy for responding to the threat of antimicrobial resistance.
Read the National Antimicrobial Resistance Strategy 2015-2019.
