The new data is compiled in the first report from the WHO’s Global Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance System.
Here are four things to know.
1. WHO launched GLASS in 2015 as the first global collaborative effort aimed at standardizing the collection and sharing of antibiotic resistance data on an international level. The collaborative contains 52 member nations, consisting of 25 high-income, 20 middle-income and 7 low-income countries.
2. Forty GLASS participants provided information on their surveillance systems and 22 provided data on levels of antibiotic resistance for 2016-17.
3. The 22 nations collectively reported 500,000 suspected antibiotic-resistant infections.
4. The most commonly reported drug-resistant infections for 2016-17 were Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus pneumoniae and Salmonella.
“The report confirms the serious situation of antibiotic resistance worldwide,” said Dr. Marc Sprenger, MD, director of WHO’s Antimicrobial Resistance Secretariat. “Some of the world’s most common — and potentially most dangerous — infections are proving drug-resistant. And most worrying of all, pathogens don’t respect national borders. That’s why WHO is encouraging all countries to set up good surveillance systems for detecting drug resistance that can provide data to this global system.”
To read the full GLASS report, click here.
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