According to a new report from the World Health Organization, drug-resistant diseases are now a major danger to global health. Keiji Fukuda,of WHO said,"The world is headed to an era in which common infections and minor injuries which have been treatable for decades can once again kill." Data from 114 countries showed resistance was happening now "in every region of the world," on common serious diseases such as pneumonia, diarrhoea and blood infections. Urinary tract infections caused by E.coli bacteria are becoming harder to treat. Treatment for gonorrhoea, a sexually-transmitted infection, had "failed" in the UK, Austria, Australia, Canada, France, Japan, Norway, South Africa, Slovenia and Sweden, which could have effects as serious as AIDS, the organisation said.

The bacterium, called HO41, is now considered a "superbug" because it's resistant to antibiotics. Someone who contracts gonorrhea from this particular bug could go into septic shock and die within days. Laura Piddock, director of the Antibiotic Action campaign group and a professor of microbiology at Britain's Birmingham University warned that the antibiotic resistance problem requires the same global attention like the AIDS crisis in the 1980s. Prof Dame Sally Davies, chief medical officer for England said, the rise in drug-resistant infections was comparable to the threat of global warming.

The WHO says more new antibiotics need to be developed, while governments and individuals should take steps to slow this process.

WHO suggest the following:

1. Only use antibiotics when prescribed by a doctor.

2. Always complete the full prescription.

3. Never share antibiotics with others or use leftover prescriptions.

The report called for better hygiene, access to clean water, infection control in healthcare facilities, and vaccination to reduce the need for antibiotics. While a new virus in the same family as SARS has infected people, most of them in the Middle East. The WHO gave it a new name: Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus, or MERS-CoV. MERS-CoV has been detected in eight countries, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, France, Germany, Tunisia and the United Kingdom.There are no treatments and no vaccine. Those with MERS-CoV have received supportive treatments to relieve their symptoms. This threat we are now facing points us to remember lest we already forget and once again trust and depend on the one who creates us and all things.