The World Health Organization (WHO) has sounded the alarm over the soaring global rise in drug-resistant bacterial infections, warning that the effectiveness of life-saving antibiotics is rapidly diminishing — turning once-treatable illnesses and minor injuries into potential death sentences.
According to a new WHO report released on Monday, one in six laboratory-confirmed bacterial infections worldwide in 2023 showed resistance to antibiotic treatment.
“These findings are deeply concerning,” said Dr. Yvan J-F. Hutin, head of the WHO’s Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) department.
“As antibiotic resistance continues to rise, we’re running out of treatment options and putting lives at risk,” he told reporters in Geneva.
A Growing Global Crisis
Bacteria naturally evolve resistance to drugs designed to kill them, but the process has been dangerously accelerated by the widespread misuse and overuse of antibiotics in human medicine, livestock, and agriculture.
The WHO estimates that antimicrobial-resistant superbugs directly cause over one million deaths annually and contribute to nearly five million deaths each year.
The latest surveillance report examined resistance trends across 22 commonly used antibiotics, including those prescribed for urinary tract infections, bloodstream infections, gastrointestinal illnesses, and gonorrhoea.
Resistance on the Rise
Between 2018 and 2023, antibiotic resistance rose in more than 40% of the monitored drugs, increasing by 5–15% each year, according to WHO data.
For urinary tract infections (UTIs), resistance to widely used antibiotics has now surpassed 30% globally.
The study focused on eight common bacterial pathogens, including Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Klebsiella pneumoniae — bacteria that can trigger severe bloodstream infections, sepsis, and organ failure.
WHO findings showed that over 40% of E. coli infections and 55% of K. pneumoniae infections are now resistant to third-generation cephalosporins, a frontline class of antibiotics used globally.
“Antimicrobial resistance is outpacing advances in modern medicine, threatening the health of families worldwide,” said WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in a statement.
‘Flying Blind’ Without Data
Despite progress in tracking AMR, the WHO warned that nearly half of countries (48%) still fail to report any resistance data, severely hampering global response efforts.
“We are definitely flying blind in a number of countries and regions with insufficient surveillance systems,” Hutin admitted.
Most resistance, the report noted, was recorded in countries with weaker health systems and limited diagnostic capacity.
The highest resistance rates were found in the Southeast Asian and Eastern Mediterranean regions, where one in three infections was drug-resistant, while one in five infections in Africa showed similar patterns.
Dr. Silvia Bertagnolio, head of the WHO’s AMR surveillance unit, said the disparity was not surprising.
“Weaker health systems often lack capacity to diagnose or treat infections effectively,” she explained. “In many low-surveillance countries, data often come only from the most severe cases.”
Pipeline Shortages and Future Risks
The WHO also warned that there are too few new antibiotics or diagnostic tests in development to counter the rising threat.
“The increasing antibiotic use, the increasing resistance, and the reduction of the pipeline is a very dangerous combination,” Hutin cautioned.
Experts fear that if the trend continues, routine surgeries, childbirth, and cancer treatments could become far riskier, and the world could face a post-antibiotic era where even minor infections become deadly.
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