High levels of resistance to antibiotics among bacteria, causing life-threatening bloodstream infections, as well as increasing resistance to treatment in several bacteria causing common infections in community settings, are rising across the globe, a new report by the World Health Organisation (WHO) revealed.

The first-ever report on global antibiotic surveillance report, released recently by the United Nations Health Agency, shows high levels (above 50%) of resistance were reported in bacteria frequently causing bloodstream infections in hospitals, such as Klebsiella pneumoniae and Acinetobacter spp. that require treatment with last-resort antibiotics, such as carbapenems.

However, 8% of Klebsiella pneumoniae that caused bloodstream infections were found to be resistant to carbapenems, increasing the risk of death due to unmanageable infections WHO said.

“Antimicrobial resistance undermines modern medicine and puts millions of lives at risk,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General.

The report further revealed that common bacterial infections are becoming increasingly resistant to treatments, with over 60% of Neisseria gonorrhoea isolates, a common sexually transmitted disease, have shown resistance to ciprofloxacin, one of the most commonly used oral antibiotics.

Similarly, E.coli isolates, the most common pathogen found in urinary tract infections, were resistant to first and second-line drugs like ampicillin and co-trimoxazole) and fluoroquinolones, respectively in over 20% of the cases.

Noting that though the most resistance trends have remained stable over the past four years, the report further revealed that bloodstream infections due to resistant Escherichia coli and Salmonella spp. and resistant gonorrhoea infections increased by at least 15% compared to rates in 2017.

Stressing the need to increase microbiological testing, the WHO Director-General said, “To truly understand the extent of the global threat and mount an effective public health response to antimicrobial resistance, we must scale up microbiology testing and provide quality-assured data across all countries, not just wealthier ones.”

The report showed that lower testing coverage, mostly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), is more likely to report significantly higher AMR rates for most “bug-drug” combinations.

According to WHO, this may be (partly) because, in many LMICs, a limited number of referral hospitals, often providing care for the sickest patients who may have received previous antibiotic treatment, report to the Global Antimicrobial Resistance and Use Surveillance System (GLASS).

Calling for strengthening the data collection quality regarding antimicrobial resistance, the United Nations Health Agency said that responding to trends of antimicrobial resistance requires high-level commitment from countries to boost surveillance capacity and provide quality assured data as well as action by all people and communities.