SUPERBUGS ARE RISING, AND AUSSIES ARE STILL OVERUSING ANTIBIOTICS

Antibiotics have long been medicine’s quiet miracle.

They turn once-deadly infections into inconveniences, transform routine surgery into low-risk procedures and underpin almost every modern healthcare advance.

But new national data suggests that the miracle is under growing threat.

A snapshot released by the Australian Centre for Disease Control (CDC) paints a sobering picture. Reports of critical antibiotic resistance rose by 25 per cent in 2024, even as millions of prescriptions continued to be issued across the country.

It is a sharp increase that underscores a reality long warned about by health experts. The drugs we rely on are slowly losing their power.

A growing antibiotic resistance problem

The Sixth Australian report on antimicrobial use and resistance in human health, known as the AURA report, brings together data from hospitals, aged care facilities, and the wider community for 2022-2024.

It offers the clearest national picture yet of how antibiotics are being used and where resistance is accelerating.

Antimicrobial resistance occurs when bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites stop responding to treatment. When that happens, infections become harder to control and, in some cases, impossible to treat.

Procedures once considered routine, from hip replacements to chemotherapy, become far riskier.

The latest figures show just how widespread antibiotic use remains.

In 2024 alone, 23.2 million antibiotic prescriptions were supplied under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, reaching about 37.1 per cent of Australians.

That represents a 4.8 per cent increase from the previous year.

Prescribing practices under scrutiny

The report highlights a troubling disconnect between availability and appropriateness. While hospitals are largely using the most powerful antibiotics carefully, other prescribing patterns are less reassuring.

So-called last-line antibiotics, reserved for life-threatening infections, were prescribed appropriately in 88.1 per cent of hospital cases.

But antibiotics given after surgery were deemed appropriate just 45 per cent of the time. In other words, more than half may not have been necessary.

In aged care, the trends are equally concerning. Older Australians in residential care were prescribed 14.4 per cent more antimicrobials in 2024 than the year before, and more than a third of those prescriptions were prolonged for over six months.

Extended use increases the risk that bacteria will adapt and become resistant.

A warning from health authorities

A CDC spokesperson said the findings showed there were key areas of significant concern.

“The fact that in Australia, cases of critical antimicrobial resistance increased by 25% in 2024 and less than half of the antibiotics given after surgeries were appropriate, shows the need for us to focus our attention a lot more strongly in targeted areas,” the spokesperson said.

“Encouragingly, overall antibiotic use in Australia is almost 21% lower than a decade ago, and ‘last-line’ antibiotics used to treat life-threatening infections are still being carefully dispensed in hospitals.

“However, there appears to be less caution when prescribing antibiotics that are considered to have a lower risk of promoting resistance, resulting in their more frequent use even in situations where there is no clear benefit.

“Identifying these pressure points, as this analysis has done, is critical if we are to safeguard treatment options for the future.”

Why surveillance matters

The report does not introduce new policy measures, but it serves an equally important purpose. It provides the national evidence base needed to guide future clinical practice, infection prevention and health policy.

“This is exactly why national surveillance matters,” the CDC spokesperson said.

“By detecting risks through concrete data, Australia can act before antimicrobial resistance becomes pervasive.”

The stakes could hardly be higher. Antibiotics underpin modern medicine, enabling everything from organ transplants to cancer treatment. Without them, routine infections could once again become deadly.

A race against time

There are signs of progress. Overall, antibiotic use is almost 21 per cent lower than it was a decade ago, suggesting that awareness campaigns and stewardship programs are having an effect.

But resistance continues to rise, driven by overuse, prolonged prescribing and inconsistent practices across healthcare settings.

The AURA report is also significant for another reason. It is the first national antimicrobial resistance report released by the Australian CDC since the agency’s establishment on 1 January 2026, marking a new phase in Australia’s long-term response to one of medicine’s most pressing threats.

The message is clear. Antibiotics remain one of medicine’s greatest tools. But their future effectiveness is no longer guaranteed.