The World Health Organisation is calling for more urgent action to deal with drug-resistant infections after the discovery of a bacteria that resists almost all antibiotics.
The WHO has issued a warning that the world is on the brink of a post-antibiotic era when many common infections will no longer have a cure, the ABC reports.
The organisation's director-general, Margaret Chan, is using her World Health Day address to warn that bugs are overcoming drugs at a much faster rate than new drug development.
The WHO says at least 440,000 new cases of multi-medication-resistant tuberculosis were detected last year.
Malaria is also becoming less treatable and resistance is emerging to the anti-retroviral medicines used for HIV.
