Drug-resistant microbes are becoming a 'global crisis'

Antibiotic, antiviral, and antifungal medications have been instrumental in fighting diseases and infections of all kinds. But what do you do when your drugs don't work anymore?

This is a question more and more people have to face as microbes become increasingly resistant to conventional drug treatment. A new UN report, published on Monday, is calling it a "global crisis" — one that is being exacerbated by the misuse of medicine.

When patients get medicine but don't take the entire course they're prescribed, it can leave some of the offending microbes behind, CNN explained. And, as the old adage goes, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. So with the help of misuse and neglect, drug resistance has grown into a problem that "threatens global progress toward improved health." Doctors are even growing hesitant to perform life-saving medical procedures, including surgeries, for fear that they will lead to infections that can't be taken care of by a normal course of antimicrobial drugs.

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But all isn't lost — the World Health Organization recommends certain courses of action we can still take to reduce the prevalence of drug-resistant microbes. For one thing, we have to stop over-prescribing antibiotics, not just for humans but also for livestock. And the WHO urges that we need to "accelerate progress" in the development of new drugs, before this problem spirals totally out of control. Learn more at CNN.