[originaltext] The World Health Organization says an increasing number of in

The World Health Organization says an increasing number of infections cannot be treated because of growing resistance to antibiotic drugs. This resistance puts the lives of millions of people at risk. The WHO studied 133 countries. It found that no part of the world is ready to fight the growing threat.[16]It says only twenty-five percent of the countries it studied has a thorough plan to fight resistance to antibiotics and other similar medicines.
    The study also found that many people do not know about the problem. And, the researchers say many people believe antibiotics are effective against viral infections. The organization says this misunderstanding causes antibiotics to be used even when they will not work. The resulting overuse can cause resistance. "Researchers discovered that antibiotics and similar medicines are sold in many places without a doctor’s prescription. This increases the possibility of overuse of antibiotics and increases resistance." said Charles Penn, a WHO expert on antibiotic resistance.
    The WHO official says urgent action is needed or the world will enter a "post-antibiotic" period. That means a time when common infections and minor injuries could once again kill people. "Doctors also would lose the ability to treat many more serious conditions like tuberculosis, infectious wasting disease especially connected with lungs. And advanced medical treatments like major surgery will become much riskier or impossible," Charles Penn said.
    This is not a problem for future worry. This is a problem for today. Charles Penn says there are diseases and infections that no longer are treatable with available antibiotics today. For example, he says antibiotics no longer affect the disease AIDS. "Another example would be hundreds of thousands of new cases of multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis each year. Again, these are infections that have already become very difficult to treat And it’s difficult to put a precise number on what will happen in the future, but if we do not act it can only get worse." The World Health Assembly is now meeting in Geneva to discuss a Global Action Plan to fight antibiotic resistance and other similar resistance.
16 How many percent of the countries studied by WHO are ready to fight resistance to antibiotics?
17 According to the WHO, why have the antibiotics been overused?
18 According to the WHO, what is the "postantibiotic" period?