Overview

• WHO’s 2025 surveillance report estimates that one in six lab-confirmed bacterial infections in 2023 were antibiotic-resistant, with resistance increasing in over 40% of monitored pathogen–drug pairs since 2018 at 5–15% per year.
• E. coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae show high resistance to third-generation cephalosporins globally (over 40% and 55% respectively), exceeding 70% in parts of Africa, while carbapenem resistance is rising and shrinking treatment options.
• Resistance prevalence is highest in the WHO South-East Asia and Eastern Mediterranean regions where about one in three reported infections were resistant, compared with about one in five in the African Region.
• Global surveillance has expanded to 104 reporting countries under GLASS, yet 48% of countries did not submit 2023 data and many reporters lack systems to generate reliable, representative estimates.
• WHO urges responsible antibiotic use, wider access to diagnostics and effective medicines, and targeted R&D, as few truly novel drugs address priority pathogens and AMR is estimated to directly cause over a million deaths and contribute to nearly five million annually.