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Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Germs that defy antibiotics are now a major global health threat, causing near-untreatable cases of diarrhea, sepsis, pneumonia and gonorrhea, the World Health Organization said Wednesday.

Overuse and misuse of antibiotics are to blame, and the WHO’s been warning about the problem for years but it keeps worsening, says Dr. Keiji Fukuda, WHO’s Assistant Director-General for Health Security.

“We are really seeing the emergence of this all over the world,” Fukuda told a news conference.

“What it means is that all of us, all our family members…when we are most vulnerable and in need of these medicines there is simply the chance that they are not available,” he added.