Stop taking pills without advice! PM Modi flags rising antibiotic resistance

“The ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research) recently released a report stating that antibiotics are proving ineffective against many diseases, including pneumonia and urinary tract infections. This is a matter of great concern for all of us,” PM Modi said. “A major reason for this is people’s indiscriminate use of antibiotics.”

He added, “Antibiotics are not medicines to be taken mindlessly. They should be used only under a doctor’s guidance. Nowadays, people have started believing that just taking a pill can cure all problems. This is why diseases and infections are becoming resistant to these medicines.”

The Prime Minister stressed, “I urge all of you to refrain from using medicines at your own discretion. This is especially important for antibiotics. Simply put: medicines require guidance, and antibiotics require doctors. Following this practice will be extremely helpful in safeguarding your health.”

WHO Report Highlights Global Antibiotic Resistance

A new report from the World Health Organization (WHO) indicates that one in six laboratory-confirmed bacterial infections worldwide in 2023 were resistant to antibiotic treatments. Between 2018 and 2023, antibiotic resistance increased in over 40% of pathogen-antibiotic combinations monitored, with an average annual rise of 5–15%.

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Data collected by the WHO Global Antimicrobial Resistance and Use Surveillance System (GLASS) from over 100 countries highlights that rising resistance to essential antibiotics poses a growing threat to global health.

The 2025 Global Antibiotic Resistance Surveillance Report provides resistance prevalence estimates across 22 antibiotics used to treat infections of the urinary and gastrointestinal tracts, the bloodstream, and gonorrhoea. The report covers eight common bacterial pathogens: Acinetobacter spp., Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Neisseria gonorrhoeae, non-typhoidal Salmonella spp., Shigella spp., Staphylococcus aureus, and Streptococcus pneumoniae.

WHO data shows that antibiotic resistance is highest in the South-East Asian and Eastern Mediterranean regions, where one in three reported infections was resistant. In the African Region, one in five infections was resistant. Resistance is also more prevalent and worsening in areas where health systems lack capacity to diagnose or treat bacterial pathogens effectively.