Overview

• WHO’s Global Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance compiled data from more than 23 million lab-confirmed infections across 104 countries and found that 1 in 6 were resistant in 2023.
• Resistance rose across over 40% of 22 commonly used antibiotics between 2018 and 2023, with resistance for urinary tract infection treatments typically exceeding 30% globally.
• Gram-negative bacteria are central to the surge, with roughly 40% of E. coli and over 55% of Klebsiella pneumoniae resistant to third-generation cephalosporins, and some African settings exceeding 70%.
• The burden is highest in South-East Asia and the Eastern Mediterranean, where about one in three reported infections were resistant in 2023, while 48% of countries provided no AMR data to WHO.
• A separate study of nearly 15,000 neonatal blood cultures from hospitals in five Southeast Asian countries found most sepsis pathogens non-susceptible to standard regimens, nearly 80% were gram-negative and about 10% were fungal, prompting calls for local guidelines and pediatric-focused antibiotic development.