Resistant infections on the rise globally, warns WHO

Antimicrobial Resistance AMR is rapidly outpacing advances in modern medicine and resistant infections are rising in hospitals across the globe said the World Health Organization WHO in a new report launched on MondayThe report based on data from 104 countries in 2023 and 110 countries between 2016 and 2023 showed that one in six laboratoryconfirmed bacterial infections causing common infections in people worldwide in 2023 were resistant to antibiotic treatmentsBetween 2018 and 2023 antibiotic resistance rose in over 40 per cent of the pathogenantibiotic combinations monitored with an average annual increase of 515 per centldquoAntimicrobial resistance is outpacing advances in modern medicine threatening the health of families worldwiderdquo said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus WHO DirectorGeneralldquoAs countries strengthen their AMR surveillance systems we must use antibiotics responsibly and make sure everyone has access to the right medicines qualityassured diagnostics and vaccines Our future also depends on strengthening systems to prevent diagnose and treat infections and on innovating with nextgeneration antibiotics and rapid pointofcare molecular testsrdquo he addedData reported to the WHO Global Antimicrobial Resistance and Use Surveillance System GLASS from over 100 countries cautions that increasing resistance to essential antibiotics poses a growing threat to global healthThe new Global Antibiotic Resistance Surveillance Report 2025 presents for the first time resistance prevalence estimates across 22 antibiotics used to treat infections of the urinary and gastrointestinal tracts the bloodstream and those used to treat gonorrhoeaThe WHO estimated that antibiotic resistance is highest in the WHO SouthEast Asian and Eastern Mediterranean Regions where one in three reported infections were resistant In the African Region 1 in 5 infections was resistantResistance is also more common and worsening in places where health systems lack the capacity to diagnose or treat bacterial pathogens the report saidldquoEssential lifesaving antibiotics including carbapenems and fluoroquinolones are losing effectiveness against E coli K pneumoniae Salmonella and Acinetobacter Carbapenem resistance once rare is becoming more frequent narrowing treatment options and forcing reliance on lastresort antibiotics And such antibiotics are costly difficult to access and often unavailable in low and middleincome countriesrdquo the report saidThe WHO called on all countries to scale up coordinated interventions designed to address antimicrobial resistance across all levels of healthcare and ensure that treatment guidelines and essential medicines lists align with local resistance patternsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever