‘Alarming’ rates of babies with antibiotic-resistant bugs in Asia-Pacific, Australian study finds

Study urges Australia to research new drugs as it warns rate of mutated infections ‘much worse than anticipated’Get our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcast“Alarming” rates of babies with infections resistant to common antibiotics in the Asia-Pacific region should prompt urgent investment into new drugs for treating childhood diseases, findings from a new study suggest.The misuse and overuse of antibiotics is driving bugs to mutate so that common drugs are no longer effective to kill them, known as antimicrobial resistance. Dr Phoebe Williams, an infectious diseases paediatrician and antimicrobial resistance researcher with the University of Sydney, said she regularly travelled to work in hospitals in the south-east Asia and Pacific region where she found “entire wards of babies that have multi-drug resistant infections, and there is nothing left to treat them with”.Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily