Drug-resistant infections already kill thousands of people across the world each year but a report by economist Jim O'Neill claims the trend is set to get worse.
The review cites as an example a type of E.coli that has now become resistant to the last-resort antibiotics carbapenems, and said there are no effective drugs currently available to treat patients with that strain of the disease.
O'Neill heads the Review on Antimicrobial Resistance, which was set up in July by Prime Minister David Cameron.
"Drug-resistant infections already kill hundreds of thousands a year globally, and by 2050 that figure could be more than 10 million," he said.
"The economic cost will also be significant.
"We cannot allow these projections to materialize for any of us, especially our fellow citizens in the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) and MINT (Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey) world, and our ambition is such that we will search for bold, clear and practical long term solutions."
Politicians and scientists have warned of the need to find a cure for infections that have become resistant, with Cameron stating it was a "very real and worrying threat" that could send medicine "back into the dark ages."
Professor Dame Sally Davies, chief medical officer for England, said the latest research is "compelling."
She said: "We all know that antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is important. This is a compelling piece of work, which takes us a step forward in understanding the true gravity of the threat.
"It demonstrates that the world simply cannot afford not to take action to tackle the alarming rise in resistance to antibiotics and other antimicrobial drugs we are witnessing at the moment.
"I look forward to the ideas that Jim will recommend in due course for how we can begin to turn this tide globally."
By Ruchi Singh
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
