Although the phenomenon is most concerning for serious infections people are admitted to hospital with, antibiotic resistance means common bacterial infections could one day be impossible to treat.
Appropriately, the issue has received national and global attention in public health policy making.
But antibiotic resistance in remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities has garnered minimal attention. Remote Indigenous communities are not mentioned in the current National Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Strategy, for example.
It’s in these parts of Australia, however, that antibiotic resistance is arguably having the most significant impact.
