The world is running out of antibiotics, a major new report from the World Health Organization (WHO) has confirmed.

According to the report, there is a serious lack of new antibiotics in development to combat the increasing threat of antibiotic resistance and this is now a ‘global health emergency'.

The discovery and development of effective antibiotics in the 1940s and 1950s meant that many serious infections such as pneumonia and tuberculosis (TB) were no longer seen as potential killers. These drugs are also used to treat common infections, such as urinary tract infections.

However, their overuse and misuse has led to the problem of antibiotic resistance, whereby bacteria change and build up a resistance to drugs that have been used over a long period of time and in great numbers. This is known as antimicrobial resistance.

The WHO report noted that most of the antibiotics currently in the clinical pipeline are modifications of existing classes of antibiotics, and are short-term solutions.

Furthermore, there are few potential treatment options for the antibiotic-resistant infections that pose the biggest threat to people, such as drug-resistant TB, which is responsible for around 250,000 deaths annually.

According to WHO director general, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, resistance to antibiotics is a ‘global health emergency that will seriously jeopardise progress in modern medicine'.

"There is an urgent need for more investment in research and development for antibiotic-resistant infections including TB, otherwise we will be forced back to a time when people feared common infections and risked their lives from minor surgery," he warned.

Aside from multidrug-resistant TB, the WHO report has identified 12 classes of priority pathogens that are becoming increasingly resistant to existing antibiotics and urgently require new treatments. Some of these cause common infections such as urinary tract infections and pneumonia.

While the report identifies 51 new antibiotics and biologicals that are currently in clinical development, just eight are classed by the WHO as innovative treatments that will actually add to the current arsenal of antibiotic treatments.

"Pharmaceutical companies and researchers must urgently focus on new antibiotics against certain types of extremely serious infections that can kill patients in a matter of days because we have no line of defence," commented Dr Suzanne Hill, director of the WHO's Department of Essential Medicines.

Meanwhile, the WHO also reminded people that new treatments alone will not be sufficient to combat the threat of antimicrobial resistance. Better infection prevention is needed and people must use these drugs appropriately.

The Irish Pharmacy Union offers the following tips in relation to antibiotics:
-Do not take antibiotics for colds and flu as these are caused by viruses which antibiotics cannot treat
-If you are prescribed antibiotics, take them exactly as prescribed and always finish the course even if you feel better
-Do not share antibiotics with others
-Do not save antibiotics for later.