Key Summary
- One in six infections worldwide are now antibiotic-resistant, with E. coli and K. pneumoniae as major threats
- Resistance is highest in Africa, South-East Asia, and the Eastern Mediterranean
- WHO urges stronger surveillance, responsible antibiotic use, and a One Health approach
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned the public on rising antibiotic resistance on common infections.
As per the latest WHO report, one in six bacterial infections worldwide in 2023 were resistant to antibiotics.
The Global Antibiotic Resistance Surveillance Report 2025 reveals that the resistance prevalence is found in nearly twenty-two antibiotics curing infections.
These medications are commonly used to treat infections in the urinary and gastrointestinal tracts, the bloodstream, gonorrhea, etc.
Acinetobacter spp., Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Neisseria gonorrhoeae, non-typhoidal Salmonella spp., Shigella spp., Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus pneumonia, are the eight pathogens mentioned in the report.
The WHO Global Antimicrobial Resistance and Use Surveillance System (GLASS) indicated this global health threat after observing over hundred countries.
One in five infections in the African-region and one in three in South-East Asia and the Eastern Mediterranean region are antibiotic-resistant.
Apart from this, unequipped countries are in serious threat from the drug resistant Gram-negative bacteria.
E. coli and K. pneumoniae are major drug-resistant bacteria causing severe bloodstream infections like sepsis.
Over 40 per cent of E. coli and 55 per cent of K. pneumoniae are resistant to key antibiotics worldwide, rising above 70 per cent in Africa.
The rising carbapenem resistance is shrinking treatment choices and pushing reliance on scarce, costly drugs as well.
However, WHO has increased countries’ participation in GLASS by four-fold between 2016 and 2023.
This is a promising growth of public awareness.
Yet, 2023 also marked that 48 per cent of countries did not report to GLASS, with some of the reported data being unreliable as well.
The 2024 UN declaration on antimicrobial resistance (AMR) urges a One Health approach across human, animal, and environmental sectors.
WHO calls on countries to strengthen labs and share high-quality AMR data with GLASS by 2030.
Nations are expected to expand their surveillance, and align treatment guidelines with local resistance patterns.
“As countries strengthen their AMR surveillance systems, we must use antibiotics responsibly, and make sure everyone has access to the right medicines, quality-assured diagnostics, and vaccines,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general.
Dr Ghebreyesus added, “Our future also depends on strengthening systems to prevent, diagnose and treat infections and on innovating with next-generation antibiotics and rapid point-of-care molecular tests.”
