Overview
- One in six laboratory-confirmed bacterial infections were resistant to treatment in 2023, according to the WHO’s new global surveillance report.
- Resistance increased across more than 40% of monitored antibiotic–pathogen pairs from 2018 to 2023, with typical annual rises of 5% to 15%.
- Gram-negative bacteria pose the greatest threat, with over 40% of E. coli and more than 55% of Klebsiella pneumoniae resistant to third-generation cephalosporins, alongside rising resistance to carbapenems and fluoroquinolones.
- Regional burdens are heaviest in South-east Asia and the Eastern Mediterranean at roughly one in three infections resistant, with about one in five in Africa.
- WHO highlights large blind spots as about 48% of countries report no AMR data and warns that too few new drugs and tests are in development, while a new study finds many neonatal sepsis cases in South-east Asia are non-susceptible to standard therapies.