Around the globe, the prevalence of dangerous infections that no longer respond to antibiotics has seen a dramatic annual increase of up to 15 percent. This alarming trend impacts treatments for common conditions like urinary tract infections, gonorrhea, and E. coli, diseases that collectively claim millions of lives each year. This critical warning comes from a report released recently by the World Health Organization (WHO).
The comprehensive report details the urgent challenges countries face in combating what is known as antimicrobial resistance. It found that in 2023, a staggering one out of every six infections worldwide exhibited resistance to the antibiotics currently available. Even more concerning, this resistance affects 40 percent of the most commonly used antibiotics for these infections.
Regions like Southeast Asia and the eastern Mediterranean are experiencing the highest rates of resistance, with one in three infections proving resistant to antibiotics. This figure is roughly double the global average and more than three times the rates observed in Europe and the Western Pacific.
Broadly speaking, antimicrobial resistance is much more prevalent in low- and middle-income nations, particularly those struggling with underdeveloped healthcare infrastructure.
“Antibiotic resistance is widespread and threatening the future of modern medicine,” stated Dr. Yvan Hutin, director of the WHO’s department of antimicrobial resistance, during a news conference to announce the surveillance findings. “Simply put, the less people have access to quality care, the more they’re likely to suffer from drug-resistant infection.”
According to the health agency’s estimations, bacterial and fungal infections that resist drugs kill over one million people globally each year and contribute significantly to nearly five million additional deaths. A recent study estimated that over 39 million individuals could die from antibiotic-resistant infections within the next quarter-century.
In many respects, antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is an inevitable biological phenomenon. Over time, pathogens naturally evolve to outwit the drugs designed to destroy them. However, the excessive and often inappropriate use of antimicrobials dramatically speeds up this evolutionary process.
Compounding this problem, the development pipeline for new drugs has largely stagnated. This is a direct consequence of a broken market for antimicrobials, which has led the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies to largely abandon the field. Companies that have attempted to develop new antibiotics have struggled to make them profitable.
“For many of these threats, the consequences are real — harder-to-treat infection, rising costs and lives lost,” Dr. Hutin emphasized.
The report specifically highlighted the growing threat of gram-negative bacteria, which present additional treatment difficulties due to their protective outer membrane that is notoriously difficult for antibiotics to penetrate. This group includes bacteria such as Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae, frequently responsible for severe infections leading to sepsis and death. In Africa, resistance to cephalosporins, a crucial class of antibiotics and often the first-line treatment for these infections, can exceed 70 percent.
Without decisive action, the human cost of this death toll will be matched by a staggering impact on the global economy. One report published last year estimated that drug-resistant infections could result in a $1.7 trillion reduction in global economic output by 2050. A large portion of this loss would stem from reduced productivity and the premature deaths of primary income earners within families.
Despite the grim outlook, the report did offer some glimmers of hope. Since its inception in 2015, nearly 140 countries have joined the agency’s antimicrobial resistance surveillance system. A significant achievement is that 100 of these nations contributed data to the latest report, representing a four-fold increase in participation.
Dr. Silvia Bertagnolio, who spearheads the WHO’s initiatives to enhance antimicrobial resistance surveillance and diagnostics, expressed encouragement regarding the increasing global awareness of drug-resistant infections and the growing willingness of countries to share critical data.
However, she also pointed out that nearly half of all countries failed to submit data last year. Furthermore, among those that did provide information, half lacked the necessary capacity to ensure the reliability and accuracy of their data.