The World Health Organization said on Monday that one in every six laboratory-confirmed bacterial infections has become resistant to antibiotic treatment, calling for the use of these medications more responsibly.
The United Nations organization added, in a report based on data from more than 100 countries between 2016 and 2023, that antibiotic resistance rates rose in about 40% of the samples analyzed.
“Antimicrobial resistance is accelerating faster than progress in modern medicine, threatening the health of families around the world,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement accompanying the report.
“We must use antibiotics responsibly, and make sure everyone has access to appropriate medicines, reliable diagnostics and effective vaccines,” he added.
Globally, antibiotic resistance directly causes more than one million deaths annually. While genetic changes in pathogens are part of a natural process, human activity such as misuse and overuse of antibiotics to control infections in humans, animals and plants accelerates this process.
According to the World Health Organization, the highest levels of antibiotic resistance are found in parts of South Asia and the Middle East, where 1 in 3 recorded infections is considered resistant to antibiotics.
In Africa, the organization confirmed that the rate of antibiotic resistance to the first recommended treatment for some types of bacteria causing bloodstream infections that can cause sepsis, organ failure and death now exceeds 70%.