Increasing prevalence of antimicrobial resistance, peaking in the Eastern Mediterranean

The World Health Organization released the new report today, which is based on information provided by more than 100 countries to the organization’s Global Antimicrobial Resistance and Utilization Surveillance System.

The report concluded that between 2018 and 2023, antimicrobial resistance rose in more than 40% of pathogen-antibiotic combinations monitored, with an average annual increase of between 5 and 15 percent.

The report indicated that the risk of antimicrobial resistance varies from one country to another. The World Health Organization estimated that antimicrobial resistance peaks in Southeast Asia and the Eastern Mediterranean (which includes the Arab countries), where 1 in 3 infections reported in the two regions was resistant to treatment.

In the African region, 1 in 5 infections is drug-resistant, and this resistance is more common and exacerbated in places where health systems lack the capacity to diagnose or treat bacterial pathogens.

The Director-General of the Organization, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, warned that antimicrobial resistance “Advancements in modern medicine are outpacing them, threatening the health of families around the world.”

He emphasized that as countries strengthen antimicrobial resistance surveillance systems, “We must use antibiotics responsibly, and make sure everyone has access to the right medicines, quality-assured diagnostics, and vaccines.”

While the World Health Organization welcomed the more than four-fold increase in the number of countries in the global system for monitoring antimicrobial resistance and use, from 25 countries in 2016 to 104 countries in 2023, it noted that 48% of countries did not report their data to the system in 2023, and about half of the reporting countries still lack the systems necessary to generate reliable data, including the countries facing the greatest challenges.

The Political Declaration on Antimicrobial Resistance, adopted at the United Nations General Assembly in 2024, set goals to address antimicrobial resistance by strengthening health systems and working in accordance with the “AMR approach.”One health“In coordination between the sectors of human health, animal health and the environment.

In this context, the World Health Organization called on all countries to provide high-quality data on antimicrobial resistance and the use of these antibiotics to the surveillance system by 2030. It said that achieving this goal requires concerted efforts to enhance the quality of resistance surveillance data, their geographical coverage, and their exchange to track progress.