The World Health Organization (WHO) is warning that resistance to common antibiotics continues to rise worldwide, with “one in six” lab-confirmed bacterial infections in 2023 showing resistance to treatment.
Between 2018 and 2023, resistance increased in over 40 per cent of the pathogen–antibiotic combinations WHO tracks, with average annual rises of 5 to 15 per cent, according to WHO’s new Global antibiotic resistance surveillance report 2025.
WHO said the report provides, for the first time, resistance prevalence estimates across 22 antibiotics used to treat urinary and gastrointestinal infections, bloodstream infections and gonorrhoea. It covers eight common pathogens, including E. coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus pneumoniae.
“Antimicrobial resistance is outpacing advances in modern medicine, threatening the health of families worldwide,” WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, calling for prudent antibiotic use alongside access to quality diagnostics, vaccines and next-generation treatments.
Related: Using antibiotics wisely: A toolkit to reduce overuse of antibiotics
Related: Developing an actionable plan for antimicrobial stewardship in Canadian dentistry
Where resistance is highest
WHO estimates resistance is highest in South-East Asia and the Eastern Mediterranean, where about one in three reported infections were resistant in 2023—roughly double the global average and more than triple rates seen in Europe and the Western Pacific. Resistance is also more common—and worsening—where health systems have limited capacity to diagnose or treat bacterial infections.
In WHO’s latest report, Canada’s national antibiotic resistance estimates for 2023 were not included, though unadjusted data are available on the agency’s Global Antimicrobial Resistance and Use Surveillance System (GLASS) dashboard.
However, what we know from previous reports is that nearly 73.6 per cent of Canada’s total antimicrobial consumption in 2021 consisted of antibiotics commonly prescribed for tooth pain, surpassing the WHO’s country-specific target benchmark of 60 per cent.
This is why during last year’s World Antimicrobial Awareness Week (Nov. 18–24), the Canadian Dental Association and Choosing Wisely Canada launched a webinar and toolkit—The Whole Tooth: Why Antibiotics Won’t Help a Toothache—to support appropriate prescribing in dentistry.
In 2019 alone, AMR directly caused the deaths of 1.27 million people and has been linked to another 5 million deaths globally.
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