Research Shows Many Countries Overuse Antibiotics That Promote Antimicrobial Resistance

A new report on antibiotic use from the WHO “suggests many countries are overusing antibiotics that are more likely to promote resistance.” CIDRAP has the news.

The findings are taken from the Global Antimicrobial Resistance Use and Surveillance System (2022), which aims to “monitor how countries are using antibiotics and to help move them toward more appropriate use.” Data on antimicrobial use (AMU) were analyzed using “the WHO’s AWaRe (Access, Watch, and Reserve) classification system, a framework developed by the WHO in 2017 to guide responsible antibiotic prescribing, curb development of resistance, and ensure that antibiotics remain effective and available when needed.”

The median total of defined daily doses (DDD) of antibiotics among the 60 countries, territories, or areas (CTAs) that provided data in 2022 was 18.3 DDD per 1,000 inhabitants per day. Of the 16.6 billion DDD overall, “only 52% were Access antibiotics, which are the drugs recommended as first- and second-line options for common bacterial infections.” A United Nations High-Level Meeting on AMR in 2024 “called for countries to commit to ensuring that Access antibiotics would account for 70% of total antibiotic use by 2030.” Only 19 of the CTAs hit that target.

The data indicated that countries with higher AMR used more Watch antibiotics, which are broader-spectrum and more expensive antibiotics. Also, participation in GLASS has risen steadily, but enrollment is still below 50% worldwide, “and participation is skewed toward high-income and European countries.”