The United Nations General Assembly held its first high-level meeting this week on antimicrobial resistance, and growing problem that threatens the world. Experts are worried that the overuse of antibiotics is resulting in a new generation of bugs that have evolved to resist even the most potent antibiotics — called super bugs.

As a result, the world is now coming together to figure out what to do with the problem. Antibiotics were perhaps the greatest discovery of the 20th century, leading to huge breakthroughs in medicine and providing an effective combatant against many diseases that have plagued mankind. But now scientists worry overuse of antibiotics have created resistance to the point that many antibiotics are losing their efficacy.

Now, scientists worry about a future where a sore throat or a simple scratch could result in a potentially fatal infection due to a disease that could have been stopped easily by antibiotics in the past.

Superbugs are starting to pop up around the world with alarming frequency, and if mankind doesn’t figure out how to deal with it, it could create big problems for our species sooner rather than later.