Antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections make common treatment increasingly unreliable

Bacterial pathogens are becoming resistant to antibiotics used to treat bloodstream, urinary, respiratory, gastrointestinal and other infections. Resistance can delay effective treatment, require more toxic or costly medicines, prolong illness and hospital stays, and make surgery, cancer therapy, intensive care and neonatal care less safe.

The GBD 2021 antimicrobial resistance analysis estimated that bacterial antimicrobial resistance was associated with 4.71 million deaths in 2021, including 1.14 million deaths attributable to resistance. It forecast 1.91 million attributable deaths annually by 2050 without stronger action.

The WHO Global antibiotic resistance surveillance report 2025 found that approximately one in six laboratory-confirmed bacterial infections worldwide in 2023 was resistant to antibiotics. Resistance was highest in the WHO South-East Asia and Eastern Mediterranean regions, where approximately one in three reported infections was resistant.

This issue covers antibiotic resistance in bacterial infections across human health, food production and the environment. Drug resistance in tuberculosis, fungi, viruses and parasites requires distinct disease-specific problem trees and is outside this node's scope.