Antibiotic resistance in remote Indigenous communities up to 50 percent

Australia’s infectious disease experts are urgently calling for high rates of antibiotic resistance in remote Indigenous communities to be addressed before communities come to a point where there are no treatment options available.

Research has shown these communities have the highest rates nationwide of antibiotic resistance to bacteria like golden staph, which can cause skin infections and in the most serious cases, sepsis.

Approximately 50 percent of people are resistant compared to 15 percent in other places across Australia.