With European chief medical officers set to discuss antimicrobial resistance in Copenhagen next week, Kamran Abbasi asked Einar Krag what all the fuss is about

A nightmare scenario of multidrug resistant bacteria laying waste the human race in the next millennium is a real possibility, according to Einar Krag, the chief medical officer of Denmark: “If we do not make serious attempts to address this issue it won't matter that we have antibiotics in 20 years' time; they simply won't work. We are running out of time and need to act now.”

His concern is such that he has organised a conference involving the chief medical officers of Europe, microbiologists, veterinarians, agriculturalists, and representatives of the pharmaceutical industry. In Copenhagen next week “the microbial threat” will be analysed, debated, and perhaps confronted.

“For the first time,” claims Dr Krag, “we have gathered together all the big players, and my aim is that this will be a policy making conference, providing the political impetus to tackle this problem. The proposals from the conference will be handed to the Danish minister of health, and the minister of agriculture, who will be able …