A COMMON infection is becoming harder to treat thanks to antibiotic resistance.
It's expected that urinary tract infections (UTIs) will cost Australia more than $1 billion per year within the next decade if nothing is done to stop the rise of antibiotic resistant bacteria.
According to an analysis by the national consortium OUTBREAK, these infections are becoming more persistent, resulting in more people being admitted to hospital where they require longer stays and more costly medicines.
OUTBREAK's managing director Branwen Morgan said drug-resistant UTIs were the canary in the coal mine for a growing number of antibiotic-resistant germs spreading in our community, animals and environment.
"Drug-resistant infections are a global health threat but this is the first time we've been able to connect the overuse and misuse of antibiotics to the health and economic impact of a single disease," Assoc Prof Morgan said.
"UTIs affect 1 in 2 Australian women and 1 in 20 men in their life-time, currently resulting in more than 2.5-million GP appointments, 100,000 emergency department visits and 75,000 hospital stays each year."
He said UTIs already cost the national health system $909 million per year, not including indirect costs such as lost productivity.
"If we do nothing to stop the rise of antibiotic-resistance, that figure could easily hit $1.6 billion by 2030.
Those figures are very conservative and don't take into account the increasing numbers of people with UTIs, so realistically it could cost much, much more than that."
The calculations were devised using a combination of national and regional data from the Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District for the number of UTI patients presenting to their doctor, the emergency department, the number hospitalised and proportion requiring intensive care, as well as local antibiotic resistance trend data.
Simeon Crawford, an infectious disease specialist in the health district, said we couldn't afford to be complacent with antibiotic resistance.
"We can see the alarming multi-billion-dollar impact of antibiotic-resistance across the entire health system nationally," Dr Crawford said.
