'Nightmare' new gonorrhoea superbug may soon be untreatable in Australia
A new health report published on Wednesday warns that antibiotic-resistant "superbugs" are on the rise in Australia.
The Australian Commission of Safety and Quality in Health Care has just released its annual CARAlert report for 2016-17, which identifies bacteria that are proving resistant to antibiotic treatment as part of a national early warning system.
CARS, or Critical Antimicrobial Resistances, are considered to be a "serious threat" to treatment, resulting in "significant morbidity and mortality in healthcare facilities, and in the community."
Along with salmonella and staphylococcus, a bacteria called Neisseria gonorrhoeae was identified as one of the most treatment-resistant.
The bacteria is the most common of 1064 superbugs detected in the past 12 months.
Coupled with a rise in patients presenting with the most common sexually transmitted diseases, it means thousands of patients have no effective treatment.
According to the report, cases of Neisseria gonorrhoeae have tripled in New South Wales and Western Australia, accounting for a third of all cases recorded by the CAR system.
Since December 2016, the superbug has dominated the survey statistics, and by March of this year it accounted for 62 per cent of all CARs reported in Australia.
It is feared the superbug may soon be completely untreatable, with the current antiobiotic used to treat gonorrhoea, called azithromycin, now close to completely ineffective.
"These are the bugs we can't afford to let get out of hand," Professor John Turnidge, senior medical advisor at the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care, wrote in Wednesday's report.
"Not having antibiotics to treat these infections would be a nightmare. It means people will die that don't need to die."
Professor Turnidge wrote that the over-prescription of antibiotics was causing bacteria to develop new and super-resistant strains, a phenomenon that was happening at a global level.
You can read the report here: CARAlert First Annual Report March 2016-March 2017
