Geneva, October 13, 2025–One in six laboratory-confirmed bacterial infections that caused common infections in people around the world in 2023 were resistant to antibiotic treatments, according to a new report from the World Health Organization (WHO) published today. Between 2018 and 2023, antibiotic resistance increased in more than 40% of monitored antibiotics, with an average annual increase of 5 to 15%.
Data reported to the WHO Global Antimicrobial Use and Resistance Surveillance System (GLASS) from more than 100 countries warns that growing resistance to essential antibiotics poses a growing threat to global health.
the new Global Antibiotic Resistance Surveillance Report 2025 presents, for the first time, estimates of the prevalence of resistance in 22 antibiotics used to treat urinary and gastrointestinal tract infections, bloodstream infections, and those used to treat gonorrhea. The report covers 8 common bacterial pathogens: Acinetobacter spp., Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Neisseria gonorrhoeaenot typhoid Salmonella spp., Shigella spp., Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus pneumonia each related to one or more of these infections.
The WHO estimates that antibiotic resistance is highest in the Southeast Asia and Eastern Mediterranean regions, where 1 in 3 reported infections were resistant. In the African Region, 1 in 5 infections was resistant. Data from the Region of the Americas show that 1 in 7 infections is resistant to antibiotics, slightly better than the global average. Resistance is also more common and worsens in places where health systems lack the capacity to diagnose or treat bacterial pathogens.
In the Region of the Americas, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) coordinates the Latin American Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance Network (ReLAVRA+)a regional platform created to help countries generate, analyze and share high-quality AMR data. While GLASS provides the global framework for data collection and reporting, ReLAVRA+ serves as its regional counterpart: building the capacity of national laboratories, harmonizing methodologies, and ensuring that data from the Americas are robust, comparable, and contribute effectively to the global understanding of antimicrobial resistance.
«Antimicrobial resistance is outpacing the advances of modern medicine, threatening the health of families around the world,» said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. «As countries strengthen their antimicrobial resistance surveillance systems, we must use antibiotics responsibly and ensure that everyone has access to the right medicines, quality-assured diagnostics and vaccines. Our future also depends on strengthening systems to prevent, diagnose and treat infections and innovating with next-generation antibiotics and rapid point-of-care molecular testing.»
Gram-negative bacterial pathogens pose the greatest threat
The new report notes that drug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria are becoming more dangerous around the world and that the greatest burden falls on countries least equipped to respond. Among these, Escherichia coli and K. pneumonia are the main drug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria found in bloodstream infections. These are among the most serious bacterial infections that often lead to sepsis, organ failure, and death. However, more than 40% of Escherichia coli and more than 55% of K. pneumonia worldwide are now resistant to third-generation cephalosporins, the first-line treatment for these infections. In the African Region, resistance even exceeds 70%.
Other essential, life-saving antibiotics, including carbapenems and fluoroquinolones, are losing effectiveness against Escherichia coli, K. pneumonia, Salmonellaand Acinetobacter. Carbapenem resistance, once rare, is becoming more common, reducing treatment options and forcing reliance on last-resort antibiotics. And those antibiotics are expensive, difficult to access, and often unavailable in low- and middle-income countries.
We welcome progress in antimicrobial resistance surveillance, but more action is needed
Country participation in GLASS has quadrupled, from 25 countries in 2016 to 104 countries in 2023. However, 48% of countries did not report data to GLASS in 2023 and about half of reporting countries still lacked systems to generate reliable data. In fact, the countries facing the greatest challenges lacked the surveillance capacity to assess their antimicrobial resistance (AMR) situation.
He political statement on antimicrobial resistance Adopted at the United Nations General Assembly in 2024, it set goals to address antimicrobial resistance by strengthening health systems and working with a “One Health” approach that coordinates the human health, animal health and environment sectors. To combat the growing challenge of antimicrobial resistance, countries must commit to strengthening laboratory systems and generating reliable surveillance data, especially from underserved areas, to inform treatments and policies.
WHO calls on all countries to report high-quality data on AMR and antimicrobial use to GLASS by 2030. Achieving this goal will require concerted action to strengthen the quality, geographic coverage and sharing of AMR surveillance data to track progress. Countries should scale up coordinated interventions designed to address antimicrobial resistance at all levels of healthcare and ensure that treatment guidelines and essential medicines lists are aligned with local resistance patterns.
The report is accompanied by expanded digital content available on the WHO website. glass boardwhich provides global and regional summaries, country profiles based on unadjusted surveillance coverage and AMR data, and detailed information on antimicrobial use.
