WHO warns drug resistance is rising in common infections

Hospitals around the world have recorded an alarming rise in common infections that are resistant to antibiotics, with doctors predicting the number of deaths driven by drug resistance will increase sharply in the years ahead.

- Ian Sample Science editor

One in six laboratory-confirmed bacterial infections were resistant to antibiotics in 2023. More than 40% of antibiotics lost potency against common blood, gut, urinary tract and sexually transmitted bugs between 2018 and 2023, records show.

The problem was most severe in lowand middle-income countries, according to the World Health Organization’s Global Antibiotic Resistance Surveillance report, which gathered data on 23m bacterial infections from 104 countries.

“These findings are deeply concerning,” said Dr Yvan Hutin, director of the WHO’s department of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). “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.”