Chief Medical Officer annual report 2011: antimicrobial resistance

In her annual report, the Chief Medical Officer, Dame Sally Davies, raised serious concerns about the slow pace of antibiotic development and the threat of growing resistance of diseases to some antibiotics.

Dame Sally warned of 'a catastrophic threat' if action was not taken to address the issue. She called for antimicrobial resistance to be placed on the national risk register, for the issue to be addressed by politicians at home and to be taken seriously at an international level:

'Antimicrobial resistance is a very real threat. If we have no suitable antibiotics to treat infection, minor surgery and routine operations could become high risk procedures.'