Geneva, 12th December 2022: The World Health Organization (WHO) has issued a warning that life-threatening bloodstream infections are being brought on by bacteria with high levels of antibiotic resistance. The organization stated in its most recent study that there is 50% bacterial resistance, necessitating the use of last-resort medicines to treat the ensuing infection.

The analysis of the antimicrobial resistance (AMR) rates gathered by the survey of people in more than 80 countries served as the foundation for the Global Antimicrobial Resistance and Use Surveillance System (GLASS) report from the WHO. It was discovered that frequent bacterial infections have led to an increase in antibiotic resistance.

According to the report, more than 60% of the isolates of Neisseria gonorrhea, a common STD, had resistance to the widely used oral antibiotic ciprofloxacin. The same holds for E. coli isolate, the most prevalent pathogen causing Urinary Tract Infection (UTI).

According to the WHO report, first- and second-line treatments were ineffective against more than 20% of E. coli cases.

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

The WHO recommended additional research to determine the causes of the rise in bacterial resistance and the extent to which it may be linked to an increase in hospitalizations and antibiotic use during the COVID-19 pandemic.