Nineteen untreatable superbugs have been discovered in the last decade, government experts have revealed, as they warn of an approaching “tipping point” with life-saving drugs becoming useless.

The mutant varieties of germs such as MRSA and gonorrhoea were able to withstand all recognised antibiotics.

Infected patients survived only because doctors used unlicensed drugs in experimental combinations to keep them alive.

Officials estimate that approximately 5,000 patients die due to antimicrobial resistance (AMR) each year.

However, last night Public Health England (PHE) warned that unless the resistance crisis is addressed, the toll could become far worse, with ineffective antibiotics such as colistin and carbapenems ushering in pandemics of untreatable disease.

AMR occurs when the DNA of bacteria mutates, or where different types of bacteria acquire DNA off each other.

PHE confirmed its labs have received 1,300 samples of bacteria containing one of the 19 new resistance types from across the UK in the past 10 years.