1 In 6 Lab-Confirmed Bacterial Infections Antibiotic-Resistant; 40% Of Drugs Lost Potency w. Common Infections 2018-23
Hospitals across the world have recorded an alarming rise in common infections that are resistant to antibiotics, with doctors saying the number of deaths driven by drug resistance will increase sharply in the years ahead. One in six laboratory-confirmed bacterial infections were resistant to antibiotic treatments in 2023, with more than 40% of antibiotics losing potency against common blood, gut, urinary tract and sexually-transmitted infections between 2018 and 2023, records show.
The problem was most severe, and worsening, in low and middle-income countries and those with weaker healthcare systems, according to the World Health Organization’s Global Antibiotic Resistance Surveillance report, which gathered data on more than 23m bacterial infections from 104 countries. “These findings are deeply concerning,” said Dr Yvan Hutin, the director of the WHO’s department of antimicrobial resistance. “As antibiotic resistance continues to rise, we are running out of treatment options and we are putting lives at risk, especially in countries where infection prevention and control is weak and access to diagnostics and effective medicine is already limited.”
Estimates of resistance for some countries might be skewed by healthcare systems reporting data only from specialist hospitals that handle the most severe infections. But based on the records gathered, the WHO estimates one in three bacterial infections in south-east Asia and the eastern Mediterranean were resistant to antibiotics in 2023, and one in five in Africa.
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Dr Manica Balasegaram at the Global Antibiotic Research and Development Partnership said the report added to evidence that drug-resistant infections had reached “a critical tipping point”. “The most difficult-to-treat gram-negative infections are now beginning to outpace antibiotic development, either because the right antibiotics are not reaching the people who need them, or because they are not being developed in the first place,” he said. “As a result, the number of AMR deaths is now expected to rise sharply, increasing by 70% by 2050.
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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/oct/13/sharp-global-rise-in-antibiotic-resistant-infections-in-hospitals-who-finds
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