Overview

• The analysis draws on about 23 million records from more than 100 countries and quantifies resistance across 22 widely used antibiotics between 2018 and 2023, with overall increases exceeding 40% and annual gains of 5–15% depending on the pathogen–drug pair.
• In 2023, one in six laboratory‑confirmed bacterial infections worldwide was resistant to at least one antibiotic, underscoring the erosion of standard therapies.
• Common treatments failed in over 40% of Escherichia coli cases and 55% of Klebsiella pneumoniae cases, with failure rates surpassing 70% in some African countries.
• Resistance rates are highest in Southeast Asia and the Eastern Mediterranean at roughly one third of reported infections, while Europe reports lower overall rates near 10%.
• WHO calls for expanded surveillance, stewardship, and incentives for new drugs and diagnostics as clinicians increasingly turn to costly intravenous reserve antibiotics that are often unavailable in poorer regions, with 2021 estimates attributing about 1.1 million deaths directly to resistance.