Bacteria are rapidly developing resistance to antibiotics, the World Health Organisation (WHO) warned on Monday, with one in six laboratory-confirmed bacterial infections now caused by antibiotic-resistant pathogens.

The organisation has quantified the problem for the first time in relation to 22 antibiotics commonly used to treat infections of the urinary tract, the gastrointestinal tract, or the bloodstream, or sexually transmitted gonorrhoea.

The WHO also examined various combinations of bacteria and antibiotics, with the latest figures from 2023.

It found that resistance increased in more than 40 per cent of cases between 2018 and 2023, by five to 15 per cent per year, depending on the combination of bacteria and antibiotic.

The study included 23 million data points from more than 100 countries.

The WHO quoted Yvan Hutin, a director at the global body, as saying, “antimicrobial resistance is widespread and threatening the future of modern medicine.

“Antibiotic resistance causes many deaths. There are significant regional differences, with the problem particularly prevalent in countries with weak health systems.

“In Southeast Asia and the Eastern Mediterranean, one in three reported infections is already resistant to the antibiotics studied.”

According to WHO data, 7.7 million people worldwide died from bacterial infections in 2021, with 1.1 million of these deaths directly attributable to antibiotic resistance.

The WHO is urgently calling for more research and development of new antibiotics.

(dp/NAN)