WHO warns of widespread resistance to common antibiotics worldwide

The World Health Organization warns that antibiotic resistance is rising rapidly worldwide, with about one in six bacterial infections in 2023 resistant to standard treatments. According to the new Global Antibiotic Resistance Surveillance Report 2025, resistance increased in more than 40% of monitored pathogen–antibiotic pairs between 2018 and 2023, averaging a 5–15% annual rise. The highest rates occur in South-East Asia and the Eastern Mediterranean regions, where up to one in three infections are resistant, and in Africa where the rate is one in five. Gram-negative bacteria such as Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae pose the greatest threat, with more than 40% and 55% respectively resistant to third-generation cephalosporins and rising resistance even to last-resort drugs like carbapenems and fluoroquinolones. Despite participation in WHO’s GLASS surveillance network expanding to 104 countries, nearly half still do not report AMR data, highlighting major monitoring gaps. WHO urges governments to strengthen laboratory and surveillance systems, align treatment guidelines with local data, promote prudent antibiotic use, and invest in innovation, vaccines, and diagnostics to avert an escalating global health crisis.