The World Health Organization (WHO) used World Heath Day on April 7 to launch its "Combat Drug Resistance! No Action Today, No Cure Tomorrow" campaign.
The organisation warned that overuse of antibiotics has undermined the global fight against tuberculosis and malaria, with 440,000 new cases of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis reported in nearly 60 countries across the globe last year, Reuters reported.
"At the same time, other age-old diseases are on the rise with the possibility of no cure," Shin Young-soo, the WHO regional director for Western Pacific area said in a media release.
"Antimicrobial resistance is a global concern not only because it kills, but because it increases health costs and threatens patient care."
Shin called on the WHO's 193 member states to adopt policies to fight the growing problem of drug resistance.
The WHO said an emergence of a strain of malaria was also resistant to the frontline drug, artemisinin and strains of gonorrhoea were becoming resistant to the last-line treatment.
It also claims antibiotic-resistant superbugs acquired during hospital stays, were becoming increasingly frequent, which could take us back to pre-antibiotic times.
"In the absence of urgent corrective and protective actions, the world is heading towards a post-antibiotic era, in which many common infections will no longer have a cure and, once again, kill unabated," the WHO said in a media release.
In 2001, the WHO developed global measures to tackle antimicrobial resistance, but now says they had not been widely implemented.
"While action is needed, commitment, implementation and accountability have lagged behind," the WHO said.
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