Green watercolor circles reminiscent of bacteria in a petri dish.

“Protect Our Present, Secure Our Future”: Act Now on AMR

Antimicrobial resistance is rising to a concerning degree. A new report from the World Health Organization (WHO) finds that in 2023, approximately one in six bacterial infections confirmed by a lab resisted antibiotic treatment. 

The rise of antimicrobial resistance, or AMR, is one of the top global health concerns of today. It  occurs when disease-causing microbes like bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites evolve traits that allow them to survive microbe-killing drugs. When microbes become resistant, medications become less effective or may lose their effect entirely. AMR therefore threatens our ability to fight and control infectious diseases. 

To alert the world of the dangers of AMR and spark action to slow its spread, the WHO commemorates World Antimicrobial Resistance Awareness Week every year during the week of November 18-24. This year’s theme, “Act Now: Protect Our Present, Secure Our Future,” emphasizes that the world is already dealing with the effects of AMR. 

AMR is primarily caused by the misuse and overuse of antimicrobial medications in medicine and agriculture. The pervasive use of antimicrobials creates a strong selection pressure that encourages natural selection of traits that allow microbes to survive. Using antimicrobial drugs improperly, such as prescribing an antibiotic when it is not actually needed or stopping a course of medication too early, may accelerate the development of AMR by providing more opportunities for microbes to develop mutations. Some strains may even become multi-drug resistant, making illness much harder to treat. 

AMR is a global problem, but the development of AMR and AMR-related deaths are not equally distributed: low- and middle-income countries bear a disproportionate burden. In particular, the South-East Asian, Eastern Mediterranean, and African regions seem to be AMR hotspots—the WHO now estimates that one in three reported bacterial infections in the South-East Asian and Eastern Mediterranean are resistant, while one in five bacterial infections in the African region are resistant. 

The high frequencies of AMR and AMR-related deaths in low- and middle-income countries are driven by a combination of different factors, including weaker health systems, lower access to diagnosis and health care, lower public awareness, environmental pollution, and poor regulation of antibiotic sales. Without investment, action, and policy, the negative impacts associated with AMR are only projected to grow. A recent analysis published by the Lancet predicts that deaths directly caused by bacterial AMR are expected to increase from 1.14 million in 2021 to 1.91 million deaths in 2050.

In 2024, the United Nations held a High-Level Meeting on Antimicrobial Resistance where global leaders committed to a set of targets spanning the health, agricultural, and environmental sectors to reduce deaths due to AMR. This World AMR Awareness Week, the WHO is calling on governments to turn political commitments into action and protect the effectiveness of antimicrobial medications. To learn more about the global burden of AMR, explore our antimicrobial resistance resource pack or the selected resources below. 

Selected Resources

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