The World Health Organization (WHO)'s coordinator of antimicrobial resistance Charles Penn said on Wednesday critical action is needed to prevent the world from heading towards what WHO has called a "post-antibiotic era."
The WHO's new 2013-2014 report highlights the global measures put in place to address existing challenges while identifying regional shortcomings.
According to the report, major action still needs to be taken in all six WHO regions to prevent the misuse of antibiotics and reduce the spread of antimicrobial resistance in the world.
Examples of malpractice include selling antimicrobial medicines without prescription, failing to adhere to medical guidelines as well as failing to regulate and control the quality of medicine.
"The overuse and misuse of antibiotics and other antimicrobial medicines has led to ever increasing levels of resistance worldwide," said Penn.
According to WHO, this is particularly worrying as only 25 percent of the 133 countries who responded to the WHO survey have instigated holistic national plans to curb antibiotic resistance.
Penn confirmed that "public awareness is still low in all regions," adding that much work remains to be done globally to tackle what WHO Assistant Director-General for Health Security Keiji Fukuda described as the "single greatest challenge in infectious diseases today."
Medical studies show that pneumonia, tuberculosis, HIV and malaria are becoming harder to treat as bacteria develop resistance to antimicrobial drugs.
Cancer treatments are also becoming prone to this worrying health trend.
The report is the first to cover governments' own assessments of their stance in terms of the responses and measures they have implemented to deal with the issue.
Key findings show that though information campaigns are common in Europe, approximately half of the population still thinks that antibiotics are effective against viruses.
He added antimicrobial medicines remain a precious resource which cannot be taken for granted as these drugs "have allowed many illnesses to be treated and millions of lives to be saved."
