WHO Warns Against Antibiotics Without Proper Diagnosis

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has called for stronger regulation of antibiotic use, improved access to diagnosis and increased investment in primary healthcare as part of efforts to tackle antimicrobial resistance (AMR), which it said kills about one million people annually from drug-resistant bacterial infections.

The acting director, AMR Department, WHO headquarters, Dr Jean-Pierre Nyemazi, made the call during a press conference to mark the exhibition, “AMR: The Human Stories Behind a Silent Pandemic,” held at the European Parliament.

Nyemazi said drug-resistant pathogens moved across countries, continents and between animals and humans, making it impossible for any single sector or country to tackle the problem alone.

“AMR affects people, animals, plants and food systems, but also our economies and the environment as part of this ecosystem,” he said.

He stressed that the One Health approach was no longer optional but essential to controlling the spread of antimicrobial resistance.

According to him, about one million people die every year from drug-resistant bacteria alone, equivalent to about two deaths every minute.

He said the economic burden of AMR was also significant because resistant infections could prolong hospital stays, increase healthcare costs and force family members to abandon their jobs to care for affected relatives.

Nyemazi said governments must strengthen primary healthcare systems to ensure that patients could obtain timely diagnosis and appropriate treatment rather than resorting to pharmacies for antibiotics without prescriptions.

“In Nepal and also in parts of sub-Saharan Africa — even obtaining a prescription can be a challenge. When families have a sick child, they often go straight to a pharmacy to get medicine,” he said.p

Also speaking, a Member of the European Parliament, Martin Häusling, warned against the widespread use of antibiotics in animal husbandry, particularly the practice of treating entire groups of animals when only one or a few animals were sick.

He said such mass treatment was particularly common in poultry production, where thousands of animals could be kept together.

“When one chicken becomes sick, the entire group is given antibiotics even if the others show no symptoms.

We have to move away from this mass treatment,” Häusling said.

He urged countries to reduce the overall use of antibiotics in both humans and animals and ensure that medicines were prescribed only after determining the specific infection and appropriate treatment.

Häusling also raised concerns about the environmental spread of resistant pathogens from slaughterhouses, saying wastewater could contain AMR pathogens that could enter the environment and expose people through contaminated water.

He warned particularly against the use of last-resort antibiotics in food-producing animals, saying the medicines should be preserved for cases where other treatment options fail.

The European lawmaker said AMR was a global problem and called for an end to the use of antibiotics as growth promoters in livestock production.

He said greater public awareness was necessary to ensure that parliaments treated AMR as a major future challenge.

Häusling disclosed that an exhibition titled “AMR: The Human Stories Behind a Silent Pandemic” was organised at the European Parliament to highlight personal experiences of antimicrobial resistance from across Europe.

The exhibition, which ran from September 28 to October 2, 2026, was designed to demonstrate that AMR could affect anyone and could destroy families and livelihoods.

Meanwhile, an AMR survivor and member of the WHO Task Force of AMR Survivors, Rob Purdie, said the impact of drug resistance should be understood beyond statistics through the experiences of patients and their families.

Purdie, who suffered a severe fungal infection that progressed to meningitis after an initial misdiagnosis, said delayed diagnosis and the limited availability of effective antifungal medicines had left him with lifelong health and financial consequences.

He said he initially received two courses of antibiotics after being diagnosed with a sinus infection, despite not having the condition.

According to him, he was eventually diagnosed with a fungal infection that had progressed to meningitis after his symptoms worsened and he developed vision problems.

Purdie said his treatment had cost about $250,000 in hospital expenses and resulted in years of inability to work, while he continued to require antifungal medication.

He said the infection had never been cured but was being controlled with long-term medication.

Purdie said the experience demonstrated the importance of proper diagnosis, noting that unnecessary prescriptions could expose patients to ineffective treatment while allowing serious infections to progress.

He called for greater investment in diagnostics, vaccines, new antibiotics and antifungal medicines, as well as behavioural change among prescribers and patients.

“We need to change the discussion — from unnecessary prescriptions to vaccination, water, sanitation and hygiene, One Health, and above all people,” he said.

Nyemazi also stressed the need for continued investment in research and development of new antibiotics, antifungals, phage therapy and other technologies.

He, however, warned that developing new medicines would not be enough if existing medicines were not protected from misuse.

“We have to do both: develop new tools and protect the ones we already have, with clear plans for their use, paired with diagnostics and proper training for prescribers,” he said.

The WHO official said countries must therefore combine antimicrobial stewardship with improved diagnostics, surveillance and access to quality medicines to slow the emergence and spread of resistant pathogens.

The theme for this year’s World AMR Awareness Week, scheduled for November 18–24, is “One Health, One Action, Prevent AMR Now.”