Antibiotic resistance -- when antibiotics no longer work in a patient's body and treat infections -- is a worldwide threat to public health, according to a report released here by the World Health Organization (WHO) today.
The data reveal that antibiotic resistance is a burgeoning problem in WHO's South-East Asia Region, of which India is a part.
"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," said Dr Keiji Fukuda, WHO's Assistant Director-General for Health Security.
"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," said Fukudu.
The report, 'Antimicrobial resistance: global report on surveillance', noted that resistance is occurring across many different infectious agents but the report focuses on antibiotic resistance in nine different bacteria responsible for common, serious diseases such as bloodstream infections (sepsis), diarrhoea, pneumonia, urinary tract infections and gonorrhoea.
The results are cause for high concern, documenting resistance to antibiotics, especially "last resort" antibiotics, in all regions of the world.
