Chief medical officer calls for antibiotic resistance action

England's chief medical officer Professor Dame Sally Davies has underlined the vital importance of ensuring that more is done to combat the threat of antimicrobial resistance.

In her latest annual report, Professor Davies expressed concern about the lack of new antibiotics developed in the past two decades, leaving healthcare providers exposed as new diseases surface that are resistant to existing therapies.

She called for this matter to be taken as seriously as the spread of MRSA and underlined the importance of better hygiene measures being implemented to prevent infections, while making sure antibiotics are only prescribed when needed is also essential.

Other measures highlighted include providing better surveillance data across the NHS and worldwide to monitor the developing situation and to ensure that the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries work together to address this "catastrophic" problem.

Professor Davies said: "If we don't act now, any one of us could go into hospital in 20 years for minor surgery and die because of an ordinary infection that can't be treated by antibiotics."

This echoes a previous warning given by the chief medical officer last year to coincide with European Antibiotic Awareness Day on November 18th 2012.