The World Health Organisation has published a list of the 12 superbugs that pose the greatest threat to human health and kill millions of people every year.
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The list of antibiotic-resistant "priority pathogens" includes a bacteria that kills up to half the people it infects. It is well-established in Australian hospitals.
Dubbed as the "nightmare bacteria", Carbapenem Resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) was discovered in patients at Melbourne's St Vincent's Hospital last year.
Categorised as "critical" on the WHO list, it causes pneumonia and bloodstream, urinary and wound infections.
Doherty Institute infectious diseases specialist Professor Karin Thursky said Victoria was on "high alert" for the bacteria in hospitals and aged care facilities.
"[The bacteria] is already well-established in the community," she said.
"If we have highly resistant bacteria, without the appropriate antibiotics to treat them, we will not be able to treat cancers or perform operations because patients will die of sepsis."
WHO says the purpose of the list is to guide and promote the research and development of new antibiotics that the microbes aren't resistant to.
A report released last year warned superbugs could kill 10 million people a year by 2050 – more than cancer kills today.
"Antibiotic resistance is growing, and we are fast running out of treatment options," Dr Marie-Paule Kieny, an assistant director-general at WHO, said.
"If we leave it to market forces alone, the new antibiotics we most urgently need are not going to be developed in time."
Another of the superbugs that is of a concern in Australia is Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococcus Faecium.
It causes neonatal meningitis, endocarditis and severe infections.
"We have one of the highest rates of this in the world," Professor Thursky said. "It's almost unique to Australia that we have this high rate."
Macquarie University Professor Dr Michael Gillings said it was just as important for Australians to stop over using antibiotics as it was to create new ones.
"If we don't change our behaviour on how we use antibiotics, the same thing will happen to these new antibiotics," he said.
Dr Gillings recommended Australia have better public awareness campaigns on antibiotic use and ban them in animal farming.
He said people needed to finish their courses of the drugs and hospitals needed to better enforce hygiene practices to stop the spread of superbugs.
Dr Gillings said improved superbug surveillance and more research funding was also needed.
The WHO list:
Priority 1: Critical
1. Acinetobacter baumannii, carbapenem-resistant
2. Pseudomonas aeruginosa, carbapenem-resistant
3. Enterobacteriaceae, carbapenem-resistant, ESBL-producing
Priority 2: High
4. Enterococcus faecium, vancomycin-resistant
5. Staphylococcus aureus, methicillin-resistant, vancomycin-intermediate and resistant
6. Helicobacter pylori, clarithromycin-resistant
7. Campylobacter spp., fluoroquinolone-resistant
8. Salmonellae, fluoroquinolone-resistant
9. Neisseria gonorrhoeae, cephalosporin-resistant, fluoroquinolone-resistant
Priority 3: Medium
10. Streptococcus pneumoniae, penicillin-non-susceptible
11. Haemophilus influenzae, ampicillin-resistant
12. Shigella spp., fluoroquinolone-resistant
