A YORK charity fighting antibiotic resistance has called on the Government to work with the pharmaceutical industry, medical researchers and academics to prevent deaths.

Antibiotic resistant infections are predicted to lead to 10 million deaths per year globally by 2050 at a cost of up to $100 trillion to the world economy.

Antibiotic Research UK, which is run by former University of York professor Colin Garner, said they would like to see their proposals, which include creating a £100million UK Antibiotic Discovery Fund and a reimbursement model so pharmaceutical companies can re-start their antibiotic drug development programmes, adopted by all stakeholders with an involvement in antibiotic resistance.

Professor Garner, chief executive of Antibiotic Research UK, said: “Numerous surveys have shown that charities can provide a bridgehead between official organisations and the public.

“We want to see a a grand alliance formed of all stakeholders including other medical research charities that focus on cancer treatments, heart surgery, organ transplantation, childbirth and joint replacement.”

This comes after England’s chief medical officer, Dame Sally Davies, warned of a “post-antibiotic apocalypse” and said it would spell “the end of modern medicine” if antibiotics lose their effectiveness.

Without the drugs used to fight infections, common medical interventions such as caesarean sections, cancer treatments and hip replacements would become incredibly “risky”, she said.

Professor Garner added: “Dame Sally Davies was quoted following a recent meeting in Berlin that this resistance is with us now, killing people.

“This is a serious issue that is causing deaths. If it was anything else, people would be up in arms about it. But because it is hidden they just let it pass.

“It does not really have a ‘face’ because most people who die of drug-resistant infections, their families just think they died of an uncontrolled infection.”