Antibiotics 'could soon be useless'

New strains of 'old' diseases like tuberculosis are making a comeback

Many infectious diseases which can be controlled now may be untreatable within 10 years, the World Health Organisation has warned.

The WHO has suggested that increasing levels of drug resistance could render many antibiotics useless within 10 years.

New strains of 'old' diseases, such as tuberculosis (TB), which are immune to existing treatments have been reported across the world in recent years.

In Russia and China, 10% of TB patients have strains resistant to the two most powerful treatments.

Last year, New York City spent almost US$1bn to control an outbreak of multi-drug resistant TB.

In Thailand, drug resistance has meant the doctors can no longer prescribe the three most common drugs to treat malaria.

A race against time

Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland: warned against resistance

Dr David Heymann, executive director of the WHO's communicable diseases programme, said there was an urgent need to reduce infection levels before the diseases wear the drugs down.

"The world may only have a decade or two to make optimal use of many of the medicines presently available to stop infectious diseases.

"We are literally in a race against time to bring levels of infectious disease down world-wide, before the diseases wear the drugs down first."

Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland, director general of WHO, added: "We currently have effective medicines to cure almost every major infectious disease.

"But we risk losing these valuable drugs - and our opportunity to eventually control many infectious diseases - because of increasing antimicrobial resistance."

According to the WHO, resistance has occurred as a result of haphazard use of drugs.

In wealthy countries, resistance has occurred because of unnecessary demand and overuse of drugs.

In poorer countries, resistance is blamed on under-use of drugs, with many people failing - often because of a lack of money - to finish drug treatment courses.

We are literally in a race against time to bring levels of infectious disease down world-wide

Dr David Heymann, WHO

Dr Rosumund Williams, head of the WHO team on drug resistance, said the situation was being made more critical because of the lack of new drugs.

"There are no new drugs or vaccines ready to quickly emerge from the research and development pipeline.

"We are making a high risk gamble with the public's health if we are betting on the discovery of new medicines and vaccines."