Biggest threat to modern medicine claim 现代医学面临的最大威胁

Could antibiotics like these be ineffective against some illnesses in the future?

媒体英语会带大家一起学习 BBC 撰稿人在报道世界大事时常用到的单词和短语。

全球医学专家警告说未受抗生素影响的细菌对现代医学构成了严重威胁。他们在《柳叶刀》（The Lancet）杂志上发表的一篇文章中呼吁世界各地的人们一同对抗此威胁。以下是 Danny Aeberhard 给 BBC 发来的报道：

The experts warn we're at the dawn of a post-antibiotic era. Immediate global action is needed, they say, if dire consequences are to be avoided within just a few years.

This would involve cutting down on the unnecessary prescription of antibiotics and providing incentives to pharmaceutical companies to develop new drugs. Research would be needed into how antibiotics in farming affect the growth of drug-resistant strains of bacteria.

The experts warn that without effective antibiotics, treatments ranging from minor surgery to current cancer chemotherapy regimes could become impossible and that deaths from infections in developed countries might return to levels last seen in the early 20th century.

They also say healthcare costs would probably spiral, as we'd be forced to resort to newer, more expensive drugs and stay in hospital for longer when recovering from illness.