New surveillance data from the World Health Organization (WHO) shows disturbing levels of antibiotic resistance across the 22 countries that are already reporting statistics.

A total of 52 high- and low-income countries are currently enrolled in WHO’s Global Antimicrobial Surveillance System (GLASS), which was launched in 2015 and has just released its first report.

Widespread occurrence of resistance was found among 500,000 people with suspected bacterial infections, according to Dr Marc Sprenger, director of WHO’s Antimicrobial Resistance Secretariat.

He spoke on the line from Bangkok to Bronwen Cowley in Geneva.