Drug-resistant superbugs’ spread surging, World Health Organization warns

Geneva — The World Health Organization sounded the alarm on Monday that the number of drug-resistant bacterial infections is soaring, compromising the effectiveness of life-saving treatments and making minor injuries and common infections life-threatening.

The United Nations health agency has warned that one in six laboratory-confirmed bacterial infections worldwide in 2023 show resistance to antibiotic treatments.

“These results are deeply worrying”, Yvan JF. Hutin, head of the WHO’s antimicrobial resistance department, told reporters. “As antibiotic resistance continues to rise, we are running out of treatment options and putting lives at risk.”

Bacteria have long developed resistance to drugs designed to fight them, rendering many medications useless. And this has been accelerated by the massive use of antibiotics to treat humans, animals and food.

Antimicrobial-resistant (AMR) superbugs are directly responsible for more than one million deaths and contribute to nearly five million deaths each year, according to the WHO.

In a report on AMR surveillance, WHO examined estimates of the prevalence of resistance to 22 antibiotics used to treat infections of the urinary tract and gastrointestinal tract, bloodstream and those used to treat gonorrhea.

In the five years to 2023, antibiotic resistance increased for more than 40 percent of monitored antibiotics, with an average annual increase of between 5 and 15 percent, according to the report.

For urinary tract infections, resistance to commonly used antibiotics was generally above 30 percent worldwide, it showed.

The report examined eight common pathogenic bacteria, including E. coli and K. pneumoniae, which can cause serious blood infections frequently leading to sepsis, organ failure and death.

The WHO has warned that more than 40 percent of E. coli infections and 55 percent of K. pneumoniae infections worldwide are now resistant to third-generation cephalosporins, the first-line treatment for these infections.

“Antimicrobial resistance is outpacing advances in modern medicine, threatening the health of families around the world,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned in a statement.

In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said last month that Infection rates from drug-resistant “nightmare bacteria” jumped nearly 70% between 2019 and 2023.

“Flying blind”

The WHO welcomed improvements in surveillance, but warned that 48 percent of countries still reported no data on AMR.

“We are definitely flying blind in a number of countries and regions that do not have sufficient surveillance systems to detect antimicrobial resistance,” Hutin acknowledged.

Judging from the available data, most resistance was found in places where health systems were weaker and there was less surveillance, the WHO said.

The highest resistance was seen in the Southeast Asia and Eastern Mediterranean regions, where one in three reported infections were resistant. In the African region, one in five infections was resistant.

Silvia Bertagnolio, who heads the WHO’s antimicrobial resistance surveillance unit, told reporters that it was not surprising that resistance was higher in places with weaker health systems, as they may not have the capacity to effectively diagnose or treat pathogens.

The differences could also be linked to the fact that countries with less surveillance may test and provide data on fewer patients and only those with the most serious infections, she said.

The WHO has warned that there are not enough new tests and treatments underway to combat the growing spread of drug-resistant bacteria.

This creates a significant “future threat,” Hutin warned, adding that “rising antibiotic use, growing resistance and shrinking the pipeline is a very dangerous combination.”