The World Health Organisation has said that the ‘antimicrobial resistance is a global health emergency.’
According to the head of WHO, growing resistance to drugs that fight infection could 'seriously jeopardise' progress made in modern medicine.
The remarks came after a new WHO report found a serious lack of new drugs in development to combat the growing threat of antibiotic resistance.
Health experts have previously warned that resistance to antimicrobial drugs could cause a bigger threat to mankind than cancer.
According to experts, if antibiotics lose their effectiveness, then key medical procedures - including gut surgery, caesarean sections, joint replacements and chemotherapy - could become too dangerous to perform.
Around 700,000 people around the world die annually due to drug-resistant infections including drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB), HIV and malaria.
If no action is taken, it has been estimated that drug-resistant infections will kill 10 million people a year by 2050.
