Experts from the University of Edinburgh last week warned that efforts to tackle antibiotic resistance in microbes requires a coordinated global response on the same scale as international action on climate change.

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On Friday, disease experts said that, without clear international commitments to combat antibiotic resistance, which is on the rise, the world faces a future in which 'simple infections' that have been treatable for decades become deadly killers.

In March, EU watchdog EFSA published the findings of an investigation which revealed that resistance to common antimicrobials is widespread in the bacteria behind food-borne infections, such as Salmonella and Campylobacter. The research, conducted by EFSA and the European Centre for Disease prevention and Control (ECDC), showed that resistance to critically important drugs was low, but that in many cases illness-causing bacteria had already become tolerant of commonly used antimicrobials.

Upon releasing the report, Marta Hugas, Acting Head of EFSA's Risk Assessment and Scientific Assistance Department, warned that use of antibiotics on animals, as well as humans, should be investigated and brought under control. Although certain uses of antibiotics on animals are banned in the EU, critics suggest these are too weak or have been sidestepped.

Last year, MPs discussed the overuse and misuse of antibiotics. Conservative MP Zac Goldsmith, who chaired the government debate, claimed that whilst overuse of antibiotics in human medicine is a major issue, agribusiness lobbyists have had an inordinate influence on government policy on antibiotics, meaning their use in agriculture has been overlooked and inadequate steps have been taken to address the of developing antibiotic resistance on farms.

Earlier this year, the UK's Chief Medical Officer clashed with industry group the British Veterinary Association over the issue of antibiotics. Speaking to Farming Online, Professor Dame Sally Davies said, "Issues with antimicrobial resistance faced by human medicine are primarily the result of antibiotic use in people, rather than the use of antibiotics in animals. However, animal use is an important factor which contributes to the wider pool of resistance and this may have long term consequences.

"We have reached a critical point and must act now on a global scale to slow down Antimicrobial Resistance. In Europe, 25,000 people a year already die from infections which are resistant to our drugs of last resort."

Professor Mark Woolhouse, of the University of Edinburgh, and Dr Jeremy Farrar, Director of the Wellcome Trust, outlined their concerns at an event hosted by the Royal Society in London last week, and published an article discussing the issue in the journal Nature. They said resistance to antibiotics, used to treat bacterial infections, and antimicrobial drugs used on parasites, viruses and fungi is spreading at an alarming rate, to the extent that treatment for many infectious diseases is now reliant on just one or two drugs.

Threat 'as great as climate change'

The pair said there is a need for a global organisation, similar to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), to coordinate issues relating to antimicrobial resistance and lead an international response to the growing problem. They drew parallels between the two developing crises; antimicrobial resistance, the pair warned, is like anthropogenic climate change in that it is a natural process exacerbated by human activity and the actions of one country can have global ramifications.

Authorities and political leaders in Denmark have issued scathing criticism of their counterparts in other EU states over the past few years. Whereas Danish authorities have taken definite steps to curb antibiotic use, surveillance work shows that a comparative lack of action elsewhere in the EU is undermining the nation's efforts to preserve invaluable drugs.

Conversely, figures released at the Australian Veterinary Conference in Perth last week show that, thanks to strong regulations around veterinary drugs and relatively low levels of antibiotic use, Australian farm animals are healthier and have better immune systems, whilst levels of resistance to common drugs is lower than elsewhere.

CMO Professor Dame Davies has promised that antimicrobial resistance will be made a key priority for government action, but on Friday the two scientists criticised as "feeble" the international response to a fast growing threat. Professor Woodhouse, Chair of Infectious Disease Epidemiology at Edinburgh, said, "The time has come to stop re-stating the problems of antimicrobial resistance and start taking action. We need independent, international leadership on this issue before the massive health gains that have been made since Alexander Fleming's discovery of penicillin are lost forever."

In addition to improved international disease surveillance, Farrar and Woodhouse called for the establishment of an international body to set targets to stem the loss of drug potency and speed up the development of new treatments. Development of new antibiotics has slowed right down in recent years.

The two experts warned that, in a world without antibiotics, routine surgical procedures would become deadly and treatments for diseases including cancer and diabetes would be rendered impossible. In 2009, former chief medical officer Sir Liam Donaldson warned that "every inappropriate or unnecessary use [of antibiotics] on animals is potentially signing a death warrant for a future [human] patient."

On Friday, Jeremy Farrar added, "We have needed to take action against the development of antimicrobial resistance for more than 20 years. Despite repeated warnings, the international response has been feeble. The World Health Organisation has missed opportunities to provide leadership, and very little progress has been made. The result has been the emergence of strains of infections including tuberculosis and malaria, pneumonia and gonorrhoea that resist all known classes of drugs. We need a new independent body that will not only monitor the spread of antimicrobial resistance, but also drive and direct efforts to contain it."