Resistance to antibiotics is one of the greatest threats to modern health, experts say.

The warning from England's chief medical officer and the Health Protection Agency comes amid reports of growing problems with resistant strains of bugs such as E. coli and gonorrhoea.

They said many antibiotics were being used unnecessarily for mild infections, helping to create resistance.

And they urged patients to take more care with how they used medicines.

This is particularly important as there are very few new antibiotics in development.

The biggest problem is that most antibiotic misuse isn't in this country nor is it in medicine. It is highly misused in agriculture - in farming, in cultivating livestock. In some countries in europe, you can buy antibiotics over the counter so people get it for anything. It's also widely misused in third world countries.

That reminds me - time to put up the "no antibiotics" posters in our practice.