The world is running out of time to tackle the problem of drug-resistant infections, experts warned yesterday.
The World Health Organisation called for "significant actions" to tackle the problem, warning of devastating implications.
A report published yesterday showed resistance to common antibiotics all around the world.
A bacteria that causes pneumonia and life-threatening bloodstream infections, Klebsiella pneumonia, has now evolved resistance to the last drug that can treat it, carbapenem, in all regions, the report shows.
Fluoroquinolones, which treat urinary tract infections, are now ineffective in more than half of patients in many parts of the world, it said.
And third generation cephalosporins are now the last treatment available for gonorrhoea – but have been found to fail in countries ranging from the UK to Canada, Japan, Norway and France, it says.
WHO warns that basic tools to tackle resistance do not exist in many countries.
It says countries can prevent the spread of resistance by ensuring the patients use antibiotics properly and complete courses of treatment.
And it calls for health workers to ensure the drugs are only used when needed – and for policy-makers to do more to support research.
Assistant director general Dr Keiji Fukuda said: "Without urgent, coordinated action by many stakeholders, the world is headed for a post-antibiotic era, in which common infections and minor injuries which have been treatable for decades can once again kill.
“Effective antibiotics have been one of the pillars allowing us to live longer, live healthier, and benefit from modern medicine.
"Unless we take significant actions to improve efforts to prevent infections and also change how we produce, prescribe and use antibiotics, the world will lose more and more of these global public health goods and the implications will be devastating.”
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