The United Nations has just announced a new health crisis that affects us all.

Only four times in the history of the United Nations have raised health issues to crisis levels. This awareness-raising campaign only addresses the world's most shocking problems.

span= "article-internal image caption-block"> antibiotics used in animal food production pose a risk to our health. (picture: nisangha/istock/getty images)

At the annual conference of the past week, the United Nations raised a new and surprising health problem to the height of the crisis together with the antibiotics in Ebola and AIDS-food, creating history.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon explained at the meeting that the use of antibiotics in food is a fundamental and long-term threat to human health and sustainable food production and development.

Since the 1940s, the use of antibiotics has played a great role in preventing the incidence and death of infectious diseases. However, the extensive use of antibiotics, especially in our food, has made infectious disease organisms adapt to drugs and reduced the efficacy of drugs, even failed.

The United Nations Information Centre outlined the scope of the problem, saying that according to the statistics of the World Health Organization, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the World Organization for Animal Health, high levels of drug resistance have emerged in the world. Today is the result of overuse and abuse of antibiotics and other antimicrobial drugs by humans, animals (including farmed fish) and crops, as well as the spread of residues of these drugs in soil, crops and water. In the context of AMR, antibiotic resistance is considered to be the most serious and urgent global risk, which requires international and national attention.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, in the United States alone, these drug-resistant bacteria cause at least 2 million infections each year. Ki-moon repeated these sobering figures in his speech to the General Assembly, saying: "It is estimated that more than 200,000 newborns die each year from infections that are ineffective against existing antibiotics."

When more than half of the world's antibiotics are used in animal food production, it becomes very important to control factory farming and large-scale food production. Organizations like the Natural Resources Conservation Commission (NRDC) are trying to do this, and their latest annual report focuses on the use of antibiotics in fast-food chains.

This year's findings have improved somewhat moderately. Panera, Chick-fil-A and subway are all committed to purchasing safer meat. But alarmingly, 15 of the world's 25 largest fast food companies failed to pass the ratings, from KFC to Olive Garden to even Starbucks.

nrdc also pointed out that although some selected fast food companies are trying to make safer choices in chicken, little progress has been made in beef and pork. But making these changes is not just the responsibility of the market. NRDC claims that if the FDA rules in the industry to ban the use of antibiotics so rampant in agriculture, real change will eventually come. To that end, we are still waiting. At the same time, be aware of the sources of meat products and seafood you eat and choose meat without antibiotics to ensure that you and your family are as healthy as possible. Read more:

: Horrible videos show how bacteria quickly become resistant to drugs

What do you think? How worried are you about antibiotics in meat and dairy products? What do you think of the United Nations in raising world awareness of this public health problem? Tell us in the comments.