PRIME minister David Cameron said the world could soon be ‘cast back into the dark ages of medicine’ unless action is taken over the growing threat of resistance to antibiotics.

Announcing a review into why so few anti-microbial drugs have been introduced in recent years, he said: "If we fail to act, we are looking at an almost unthinkable scenario where antibiotics no longer work and we are cast back into the dark ages of medicine where treatable infections and injuries will kill once again.”