One out of every 10 children with a bloodstream infection are infected with a multi-drug-resistant organism in the nation’s first-ever surveillance study investigating the prevalence of paediatric AMR.
The Australian Group on Antimicrobial Resistance (AGAR) Kids Report, prepared by the Wesfarmers Centre of Vaccines and Infectious Diseases, based at The Kids Research Institute Australia (formerly Telethon Kids), used data collected from 38 laboratories throughout the country to identify the strains of bacteria causing hospitalisation.
E.coli was the most frequently reported bacteria in patients under 12 months of age, with the greatest proportion of antibiotic resistance found in Victoria, while the NT recorded the highest rate of methicillin-resistance (MRSA) at 45%, followed by WA at 19%.
Lead author and infectious diseases epidemiologist Ms Anita Williams said antimicrobial resistance among children was a growing but ill-defined threat that was predicted to see a rise in infection-related hospital admissions and deaths.
“To date, there has not been a national snapshot available on AMR in Australia, so we evaluated 1700 bacteria samples collected throughout 2020-21 from Australian kids and teenagers,” Ms Williams explained.
“For the first time we were able to identify bacterial infections and antibiotic resistance across different antibiotics by age, sex and state or territory – providing an essential benchmark for all future research in this field.”
The AGAR Kids study, published in Communicable Disease Intelligence, demonstrated that 9.4% of the bacteria causing bloodstream infections were multi-drug resistant, and pin-pointed Staphylococcus aureus as the most common bacteria found in children over the age of one nation-wide.
“The study gives us valuable insight into how AMR varies according to geographic location, which can help guide localised treatment recommendations, but it also tells us that no matter the location, all children are at risk of resistant infections,” Ms Williams said.
“Now that we have a baseline for monitoring AMR in children, the study can be replicated to examine larger data sets over longer time periods.”
The WHO has flagged AMR as one of the top global public health and development threats, expected to claim 10 million lives by 2050.
Professor Chris Blyth, a paediatric infectious diseases physician and head of the Wesfarmers Centre, said this groundbreaking study would help health professionals determine the optimal treatment for children with blood stream infections and improve treatment outcomes.
“Monitoring paediatric bacteria will also help us learn more about the cause of invasive infections and inform future treatment and prevention strategies by targeting at-risk age groups in higher-risk states and territories,” he said.
“It also highlights that Australian children are at risk of multi-drug-resistant organisms, so efforts to tackle AMR and improve antibiotic use must be prioritised.”
More information on the AMR research underway at The Kids Research Institute is available here.