The Australian Society for Infectious Diseases (ASID) and Australian Society for Antimicrobials (ASA) combined forces in February 2011 host the Summit on Antimicrobial Resistance. The Summit examined, amongst other issues, how to address the decrease in research into and the development of new, effective antibiotics and the increasing rates of multiresistant bacteria that cannot be treated with currently available antibiotics.
In their website address about the conference the Presidents of the Societies – Tom Gottlieb (ASID) and Graeme Nimmo (ASA – wrote “The problem of antibiotic resistance worldwide, including Australia, is one of the foremost issues that we face in the coming decades. We strongly believe that there is an urgent requirement for a debate within Australia on how to comprehensively address the problems of antimicrobial resistance, with the goal to implement a coordinated national approach.”.
The Summit built on work from over a decade ago that led to the development of a blueprint for tackling antibiotic resistance for human and non-human use of antibiotics - the Joint Expert Technical Advisory Committee on Antibiotic Resistance (JETACAR) report.
The Conference report which includes a series of resolutions that forms a national action plan was published in the Medical Journal of Australia. It is a powerful call for national action, but set very much against the need for concerted action in the international arena. Copies can be accessed here.