The Growing Global Threat Of Antibiotic Resistance Ielts Reading Answers !!exclusive!! Jun 2026

The discovery of new antibiotics has slowed dramatically because companies face a unique market problem. Unlike drugs for chronic diseases, new antibiotics are intended to be kept in (10) ______ to avoid creating resistance. This means sales volumes are low. As a result, the potential (11) ______ from an antibiotic is much smaller than that from other medications. To solve this, some propose a (12) ______ system where governments pay a set fee for (13) ______ to antibiotics, regardless of how much is used.

An acknowledgment of the medical breakthroughs enabled by the advent of antibiotics.

Antimicrobial resistance – the ability of microorganisms to withstand the effects of medicines that once killed them – has escalated from a scientific concern into one of the most urgent public health crises of the twenty-first century. When penicillin became widely available during the Second World War, it was hailed as a medical miracle, rapidly vanquishing infected wounds that had been the biggest wartime killer. Yet just four years after drug companies began mass-producing penicillin in 1943, microbes capable of resisting it had already emerged. Decades later, that early warning has become a global alarm. The discovery of new antibiotics has slowed dramatically

Paragraph A details how the discovery of penicillin transformed medicine, noting it made "...complex surgeries, organ transplants, and cancer chemotherapies viable..."

Already, infections caused by resistant pathogens—such as Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), Multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB), and resistant strains of Enterobacteriaceae —require longer hospital stays, more complex treatments, and cause hundreds of thousands of deaths annually. The economic burden is equally severe, draining billions of dollars from healthcare systems due to prolonged illness and the necessity for more expensive, second- or third-line therapies. Addressing the Threat: A Multi-Pronged Approach As a result, the potential (11) ______ from

| Question | Answer | Explanation | |---|---|---| | 1 | | Paragraph 1 states: “just four years after drug companies began mass-producing penicillin in 1943, microbes began appearing that could resist it”. | | 2 | C | Paragraph 3 states: “resistance levels are highest in the WHO South-East Asian and Eastern Mediterranean Regions, where one in three reported infections were resistant”. | | 3 | C | Paragraph 5 states: “the overuse and misuse of antibiotics in human medicine, animal husbandry, and agriculture are the primary drivers”. | | 4 | C | Paragraph 7 states: “annual GDP losses reaching US$1 trillion to US$3.4 trillion by 2030”. | | 5 | B | Paragraph 6 states: “a dual crisis: a scarcity of drugs in development and a lack of innovation in methods to fight drug-resistant bacteria”. | | 6 | A | Paragraph 4 explains that resistant bacteria survive and multiply through natural selection. | | 7 | B | Paragraph 8 discusses the economic consequences, including longer hospital stays and higher healthcare costs. | | 8 | C | Paragraph 7 presents economic data to highlight the financial threat of AMR. | | 9 | 10% | Paragraph 8 states: “a 10% reduction in AMR-related deaths”. | | 10 | One Health | The final paragraph states: “the ‘One Health’ approach … is central to any effective strategy”. |

What is the organization that warned about the threat of antibiotic resistance? and agriculture are the primary drivers”.

The majority of antibiotics used in agriculture are given to cure severely sick animals.

Paragraph B explicitly states that antibiotics are "entirely useless" against viral infections like the common cold.

Compounding the issue is a stagnant pharmaceutical pipeline. Developing a new antibiotic is a lengthy, financially risky endeavor that can take over a decade and cost billions of dollars. Because antibiotics are cured quickly and taken for short durations, pharmaceutical companies find them far less lucrative than chronic disease medications. Consequently, major drug manufacturers have largely abandoned antibiotic research, leaving global health authorities with an emptying arsenal against highly adaptable microbes. Typical IELTS Reading Questions Questions 1–5: Paragraph Matching