Systems to tackle antibiotic resistance missing, WHO says

Most governments in the world have inadequate national plans to tackle the misuse of antibiotics, the World Health Organization has said.

In a report published last month, the WHO said that only 34 out of the 133 countries participating in its survey on antimicrobial medicines had a comprehensive national plan to fight antimicrobial resistance.

Monitoring patterns of antimicrobial resistance is infrequent in many countries, the WHO report said. In many countries, poor laboratory capacity, infrastructure and data management are preventing effective surveillance, which can reveal patterns of resistance and identify outbreaks.