PM: Superbugs risk medicine 'returning to the dark ages'

David Cameron has warned we risk returning to the "dark ages" unless drugs firms develop new treatments with 70 per cent of medications now resisting at least one 'superbug'.

ITV News Health Editor Catherine Jones reports:

The world is heading for a "post-antibiotic age" that threatens a "global health crisis" , the head of a leading medical charity has warned.

Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust said the problem arose from "drug-resistant bacteria, viruses and parasites".

"It threatens not only our ability to treat deadly infections, but almost every aspect of modern medicine: from cancer treatment to Caesarean sections, therapies that save thousands of lives every day rely on antibiotics that could soon be lost, " he warned.

Mr Farrar warned that not enough new drugs are being developed to replace ones that are no longer efffective.

At the same time he welcomed a new initiative, backed by David Cameron, to set up an international panel looking at how best to facilitate the development of new treatments.

Read: UK 'to lead fight' against antibiotic-resistant superbugs

The rise of antibiotic-resistant superbugs risks sending medicine back into the "dark ages", David Cameron has warned.

He stressed the importance of investing in a new generation of antibiotics, describing the emergence of superbugs as "a very real and worrying threat" that is "happening right now".

"If we fail we are looking at an almost unthinkable scenario where antibiotics no longer work and we are cast back into the dark ages of medicine where treatable infections and injuries will kill once again," he told The Times.

The UK will take a leading role in the fight against a new type of antibiotic-resistant superbug, David Cameron has said.

Mr Cameron says his scientific experts have said superbugs are among "the most serious health problems the world faces".

"When we've had these problems in the past, whether it is how we tackle HIV and Aids, how it is possible to lead the world and get rid of diseases like polio, Britain has taken a lead and I think it is right we take a lead again," he told The Times (£).

The paper also reports that the Prime Minister raised the issue in private talks with Barack Obama and German chancellor Angela Merkel at the G7 last month.

An international group of experts has been established to help stimulate the development of a "new generation of antibiotics".

The panel will be led by Jim O'Neill, the former chief economist at investment bank Goldman Sachs, who has been tasked with working out how governments could pay pharmaceutical companies to produce rarely used drugs.