The Wire

50% of Australian indigenous children will have up to 6 prescriptions of antibiotics before their 6th birthday.

This over-reliance on antibiotics stems from an increasingly high rate of infectious disease spread throughout rural communities. As more antibiotics are prescribed, there is a parallel increase in bacterial resistance. Past studies found that 1 in 2 individuals in aboriginal communities are resistant to treatments for pathogens such as golden staph.

This means that doctors in rural communities are running out of bacterial treatments, which raises severe health risks.

We spoke to Dr. Asha Bowen, head of Skin Health at the Telethon Kids Institute, about how we can combat this rising health crisis.