Hot SourceThe World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned that antibiotic resistance is becoming a major global health threat, with one in six bacterial infections worldwide now resistant to available treatments.
This was revealed Monday during a press briefing on the launch of the Global Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance System (GLASS) Report 2025, which compiles data from more than 100 countries.
According to the report, resistance to essential antibiotics rose by five to 15 per cent annually from 2018 to 2023, threatening the effectiveness of key life-saving medications globally.
The Director of WHO’s Department of Antimicrobial Resistance, Dr Yvan Hutin, said the findings showed a worsening crisis that could undermine many advances in modern medicine and public health systems.
“Antibiotic resistance is widespread and increasing.
“We found that one in six laboratory-confirmed bacterial infections worldwide in 2023 were resistant to antibiotic treatment,” Hutin stated.
Hutin noted resistance levels were highest in Southeast Asia and the Eastern Mediterranean, where one in three infections were resistant, followed by Africa, where one in five showed resistance.
He described rising resistance to widely used antibiotics, including third-generation cephalosporins and carbapenems, as alarming.
According to him, in some parts of Africa, resistance in E. coli exceeded 70 per cent.
Hutin warned that drug resistance was forcing health workers to use last-resort antibiotics, which were costly and often unavailable, particularly in low- and middle-income countries struggling with access.
“As resistance rises, we’re running out of options, especially in places lacking access to diagnostics and effective treatments,” Hutin said, calling for urgent global action and stronger antimicrobial resistance surveillance.
The Unit Head for AMR Surveillance at WHO, Dr Silvia Bertagnolio, said that although global tracking had improved, many low- and middle-income countries still faced significant data and system gaps.
Bertagnolio noted that country participation in AMR surveillance rose from 25 in 2016 to 104 by 2023, now covering more than 70 per cent of the global population in total.
“These upward trends show that countries increasingly value global AMR data sharing as a common public health good,” she said, while urging continued improvements in quality and representativeness.
“GLASS now includes data from more than 23 million laboratory-confirmed infections, making it WHO’s most comprehensive effort to analyse global trends in antibiotic resistance and identify emerging threats.”
However, Bertagnolio said nearly half of WHO member states failed to submit any AMR data in 2024, and many still lacked systems to produce reliable, representative national-level information.
“Antibiotic resistance disproportionately affects countries with weaker health systems,” she added, noting that those most burdened by AMR often had the least ability to assess and address the problem.
He said Southeast Asia showed the highest regional participation at 91 per cent of countries, followed by the Eastern Mediterranean at 76 per cent.
“Africa recorded the lowest AMR data coverage.”
In spite of challenges, Bertagnolio reported steady progress. Between 2016 and 2023, reported infections with susceptibility testing increased by 26 per cent for UTIs and 20 per cent for bloodstream infections.
“Without strong surveillance, resistance spreads unchecked. We urge countries to improve data quality and coverage to protect global health,” she said, urging alignment with AMR data targets by 2030.
Bertagnolio called for national treatment guidelines and essential medicines lists to be updated regularly, reflecting current local resistance trends to ensure patients received safe and effective treatments.
“The consequences are here. Infections once easy to treat now need more expensive and sometimes toxic drugs,” she said, reinforcing the urgency of prioritising AMR in global health efforts.
Antimicrobial resistance remains a major global health concern, threatening the effectiveness of essential treatments and placing millions at risk of untreatable infections.
As countries aim to strengthen health systems and honour international AMR commitments, reliable and timely surveillance data is now more critical than ever to inform policy and save lives.
Inaugurated in 2015, WHO’s GLASS was designed to help countries build robust AMR surveillance systems, harmonise reporting, and generate evidence needed to guide national and international responses to AMR.
By the end of 2024, 138 countries and three territories had joined GLASS, with more than 100 nations submitting AMR data for the year, increasing the reach of global AMR tracking.
The 2025 GLASS Report is supported by expanded digital content, including a public dashboard with regional summaries, country-specific profiles, and detailed information on antimicrobial use and resistance patterns. (NAN)
