Overview

• Global surveillance shows resistance rose across more than 40% of monitored pathogen–drug pairs from 2018 to 2023, typically by 5–15% per year.
• Nearly 40% of antibiotics used for common urinary, gut, blood and sexually transmitted infections lost effectiveness over the past five years.
• Hotspots include South‑East Asia and the Eastern Mediterranean, where about one in three reported infections were resistant, with Africa reporting about one in five.
• Gram‑negative threats dominate: over 40% of E. coli and more than 55% of Klebsiella pneumoniae were resistant to third‑generation cephalosporins in 2023.
• WHO flags major blind spots as 48% of countries submitted no resistance data last year and reiterates the toll of roughly 1.2 million deaths annually, urging stronger stewardship, access and R&D.