WHO Report On Increasing Antibiotic Resistance In Bacteria Paints A Grim Picture

The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that high levels of antibiotic resistance in bacteria are causing life-threatening bloodstream infections. In its latest report, the global health body said there is 50 per cent resistance in bacteria and the resultant infection has to be treated with last-resort antibiotics. The WHO's Global Antimicrobial Resistance and Use Surveillance System (GLASS) report is based on the analysis of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) rates collected by the survey of people in over 80 countries. It found that there is increased resistance to antibiotics from common bacterial infections.

It said that more than 60 per cent of Neisseria gonorrhoea isolates, a common sexually transmitted disease, have shown resistance to the common oral antibacterial ciprofloxacin. The same goes for E.coli isolates, the most common pathogen in urinary tract infections. The WHO report said that over 20 per cent of E.coli cases showed resistance to first and second-line treatments.

"Antimicrobial resistance undermines modern medicine and puts millions of lives at risk," WHO chief Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus is quoted as saying in the report.

"To truly understand the extent of the global threat and mount an effective public health response to AMR, we must scale up microbiology testing and provide quality-assured data across all countries, not just wealthier ones," he added.

The report added that most resistance trends have remained stable over the past four years, but bloodstream infections due to resistant Escherichia coli and Salmonella spp. and resistant gonorrhoea infections increased by at least 15 per cent compared to rates in 2017.

The WHO finally called for more research to identify why there is an increase in bacterial resistance, and to what extent it might be related to increased hospitalisations and antibiotic treatments during the COVID-19 pandemic.