In recent testimony before a House of Commons Select Committee on Science and Technology, Professor Dame Sally Davies, Britain’s chief medical officer, warned of an impending “apocalyptic scenario” as a result of the lack of effective antibiotics. Citing the seriousness of the issue, Professor Davies told the committee that she intended to ask the Cabinet Office to add antibiotic resistance to the United Kingdom’s national risk register in light of an annual report on infectious disease that she will publish in March.

The BBC reported that Professor Davies told the committee, “It is clear that we might not ever see global warming, the apocalyptic scenario is that when I need a new hip in 20 years I’ll die from a routine infection because we’ve run out of antibiotics.” She went on to say, “It is very serious, and it’s very serious because we are not using our antibiotics effectively in countries. There is a broken market model for making new antibiotics, so it’s an empty pipeline, so as they become resistant, these bugs, which they would naturally but we’re breeding them in because of the way antibiotics are used, there will not be new antibiotics to come.” According to the Guardian, Professor Davies warned the committee that, “there are few public health issues of potentially greater importance for society than antibiotic resistance.”