Experts have previously warned that resistance to the drugs that are used to fight infections could cause a bigger threat to mankind than cancer.

If antibiotics lose their effectiveness, key medical procedures - including organ transplantation, Caesarean sections, joint replacements and chemotherapy - could become too dangerous to perform.

Around 700,000 people around the world die annually due to drug-resistant infections and, if no action is taken, it has been estimated that such infections will kill 10 million people a year by 2050.

Now, the WHO has come up with a list of antibiotic-resistant "priority pathogens" - 12 families of bacteria that pose the greatest threat to human health.

Medical research charity the Wellcome Trust said that the list was important to steer research into new antibiotics.