GENEVA

One in six bacterial infections causing common illnesses in people worldwide in 2023 was resistant to antibiotic treatment, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned Monday in a new report highlighting a growing global health concern.

Between 2018 and 2023, antibiotic resistance increased in more than 40% of the pathogen-antibiotic combinations tracked by the WHO, with annual rises between 5% and 15%, according to the report.

Data submitted by over 100 countries to the WHO's Global Antimicrobial Resistance and Use Surveillance System indicate growing resistance to key antibiotics used to treat urinary, gastrointestinal, and bloodstream infections, as well as gonorrhea.

"Antimicrobial resistance is outpacing advances in modern medicine, threatening the health of families worldwide," said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

The report found that resistance was highest in the WHO South-East Asian and Eastern Mediterranean regions, where one in three reported infections was resistant. Drug-resistant E. coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae, common causes of bloodstream infections, pose the greatest risk, with more than half of global cases now resistant to first-line treatments.

WHO urged countries to strengthen laboratory systems and share high-quality antimicrobial resistance data by 2030.