Just like our carbon footprint monitors the global environmental impact of harmful greenhouse gases, we also need to track our antibiotic footprint to contain and reduce the effects of drug resistance.
WHO launches the Global Antibiotic Resistance Surveillance (GLASS) Report 2025
The World Health Organization (WHO) has released its Global Antibiotic Resistance Surveillance Report 2025, revealing that one in six bacterial infections worldwide in 2023 were resistant to antibiotics.
Drawing on data from over 100 countries reporting to the WHO Global Antimicrobial Resistance and Use Surveillance System (GLASS) from 2018–2023 the report highlights that resistance to lifesaving antibiotics is widespread, critically high, and increasing globally.
This marks the first time WHO has published resistance prevalence estimates across 22 key antibiotics, underscoring the growing threat to public health, the importance of strengthening surveillance systems and the urgent need for global action.
Supporting countries to register for and provide quality data to GLASS has been a central output of the Fleming Fund programme since inception. In addition to technical support, the Fleming Fund has provided financial contributions to the WHO GLASS initiative, supporting the expansion and strengthening of global antimicrobial resistance surveillance.
“The release of the WHO GLASS report is an important milestone for the Fleming Fund, which supports AMR surveillance in more than 30 countries in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean. More antimicrobial use and resistance data has been reported in this round than ever before from Fleming Fund-supported countries, which has made a significant contribution to improving the quantity, quality and accuracy of the AMR data,” said the Fleming Fund Global Technical Lead Dr Toby Leslie at Mott MacDonald.
“For the first time, GLASS has also measured coverage of surveillance systems, and although there is still a long way to go for countries to meet GLASS requirements, there is noticeable progress. WHO GLASS data focuses on human health, but the Fleming Fund has also supported similar gains in animal health and the environment with a One Health, multisector approach to strengthening AMR surveillance.”
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