Superbugs

The Hon. R.P. WORTLEY (15:29): I would like to speak about the amazing research currently being done into finding a cure for the superbug. I recently attended the annual Australian Society of Medical Research dinner. At that dinner I met three amazing researchers: Dr Katharina Richter, Dr Adrian Abdo and Ms Laurine Kaul. They are all part of a team looking for a cure for the superbug, and I would like to acknowledge their presence today in the gallery.

I am sure you have heard about the rise of superbugs, meaning more and more bacteria like golden staph become resistant to our best medical care with antibiotics. By the year 2050, a person will die every three seconds from a superbug infection. This is more than the number of people dying from cancer and diabetes combined. In the near future, superbugs will account for 10 million deaths every year, causing a $100 trillion burden to the global economy and pushing 28 million people into poverty.

You may ask: how did we end up in this position? Penicillin, the first antibiotic, was discovered almost 100 years ago. Alexander Fleming, Ernst Chain and our Adelaidean hero Howard Walter Florey received the Nobel Prize for their pioneering discovery, saving millions of lives around the world. Little did they know then how fast resistant superbugs would emerge and spread, leading to a present global healthcare crisis. The first superbug that is resistant to every antibiotic in our treatment portfolio was identified in 2015, and it is only a matter of time until this becomes the next pandemic. Therefore, we really must act now. This is a battle against bacteria and every one of us must face the fight.

One reason why bacteria become resistant to known antibiotics is they live in protective castles called biofilms. Biofilms are clusters of bacteria embedded in a wall of slime. This acts as a fortification that protects bacteria from the immune system and medical treatments and makes them up to 1,000-fold more resistant to antibiotics than single bacteria. Eighty per cent of infections are caused by biofilms, yet best medical care with antibiotics does not kill these superbug biofilms effectively. Millions of people suffer and die from devastating biofilm infections, and a significant number of our aged population has problems with superbugs. We have to ask ourselves: is this what our parents and grandparents deserve, and is this what we want to face when we retire?

Novel treatments are urgently needed and medical research has to strike back. We do not need to look far for cutting-edge science to fill this gap. Researchers at Adelaide University like Dr Katharina Richter and small and medium enterprises like RiBu Plasma are developing innovative treatments that are different from antibiotics. In the pipeline are applications based on cold plasma technology. Plasma is the fourth state of matter and is made of an ionised gas that contains so much energy that superbugs get a deadly lightning strike when it hits them. This has been proven in pre-clinical studies and is soon ready for first trials in humans.

Dr Katharina Richter and the start-up RiBu Plasma have the goal to bring these urgently needed treatments to commercial products that are made right here in Adelaide, to revolutionise infection control and wound care. By leveraging the outstanding facilities of Adelaide BioMed City and the research and development capacity of our universities and hospitals, small and medium enterprises like RiBu Plasma can truly be a game changer in the war on superbugs, but they need our help. To fulfil their mission to improve health care they are looking for allies in this war.

This research is expensive as much as it is important for the health of millions of people. More funding for medical research is needed, as well as smoother, less bureaucratic pathways from the lab to the clinic to the market. This is where we as politicians can make a difference by supporting local research and businesses, creating the right environment for innovators to discover the next penicillin. So let's partner up. This is a war we can only win by working together for a healthier future for all.