Antibiotic resistance: 406 cases a week, and north west London tops the table
There were 21,129 resistant bacteraemia cases in 2025 — an average of 406 a week. The rate of increase slowed from 9.3% to 3.2%. The highest rate in the country is NHS North West London at 63.3 per 100,000, 2.3 times Leicester’s.
Thanks for £1
On 12 November 2026 the UK Health Security Agency published its surveillance data on antibiotic resistance. The figure the report is built around: an average of 406 cases a week across 2025.
What the numbers show
In total, 21,129 antibiotic-resistant bacteraemia cases were reported in 2025. Bacteraemia is bacteria in the bloodstream, a potentially life-threatening infection.
ONLYWAY NEWSLIVEMoney · 15.11The missing pension top-up: how to reclaim HRP years for caringMoney · 14.11Energy standing charges: what you pay even at zero usageLaw · 14.11Exchanging a foreign driving licence: who can skip the tests and who cannotBooks · 14.11The Water-Babies by Charles Kingsley — bedtime book: extract, author and a journey to the placesUK & Politics · 14.11King's Award for Voluntary Service: 250 groups honoured across BritainMarkets · 14.11Brexit barriers hit profits for over half of UK food and drink exportersJobs & Business · 14.11Youth Guarantee: Biffa opens up to 2,000 jobs for young peopleLife · 14.11Compare schools online: how to choose your child's school in EnglandTravel · 14.11A quarter more vans, fewer buses: how travel in Britain has changedLife · 14.11Forever chemicals in England’s rivers: PFOS down 30%, and nearly halved in fishONLYWAY NEWS · appInstall the ONLYWAY NEWS appFresh UK news, classifieds, key dates and exchange rates on your home screen, one tap away. Free.NewsClassifiedsCalendarRatesAgainst 2019 that is a rise of 16.8%: there were 18,086 cases then.
There is one encouraging detail. The pace of increase has slowed: cases rose 3.2% between 2024 and 2025 (20,468 to 21,129), compared with 9.3% the year before, from 18,732 to 20,468.
Deaths among people with a resistant Gram-negative bacteraemia stayed broadly level: 2,318 in 2025 against 2,399 in 2024.
Fewer antibiotics are being prescribed
Total antibiotic use in the NHS fell by 10.7% between 2019 and 2025 — from 17.8 to 15.9 defined daily doses per 1,000 inhabitants per day.
Private prescriptions dispensed in community pharmacies are counted separately, and over a single year, 2024 to 2025, they fell 20.8%, from 0.61 to 0.48 on the same measure.
What it costs hospitals
Preliminary analysis puts around 53,400 hospital admissions related to Gram-negative bloodstream infections at roughly £800 million to NHS hospitals between 2023 and 2024. Work to quantify the share attributable to resistance itself is ongoing.
London tops this table
The variation between integrated care boards is wide, and the capital takes the top places.
The highest rate of resistant infections is at NHS North West London ICB: 63.3 cases per 100,000 population. Next come NHS North East London at 51.1 and NHS Frimley at 50.8.
The lowest is NHS Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland at 27.4 per 100,000.
The gap between north west London and Leicester is a factor of 2.3. The agency says it continues to work with partners to understand the reasons behind these differences.
Who it hits hardest
Age is the main factor. Adults over 45 accounted for 89.3% of resistant infection cases in 2025 (19,245 people), and almost half — 49.7%, or 10,706 cases — were detected in people over 74. Risk rises with age as people develop multiple conditions and have more exposure to healthcare.
The second factor is deprivation. People in the most deprived areas had a rate of resistant bacteraemia 44.2% higher than those in the least deprived: 44.4 against 30.8 cases per 100,000.
The agency also reports differences between ethnic groups in the proportion of bacteraemia episodes that were resistant: 42.4% in the Asian or Asian British group (46.6 per 100,000), 32.8% in the Black, African, Caribbean or Black British group (45.2 per 100,000) and 20.7% in the White group (33.9 per 100,000). The reasons are under investigation.
What is being asked of people
Dr Shona Arora, the agency's Interim Chief Medical Advisor, put the request to the public briefly.
Take antibiotics only if a healthcare professional has told you to. Do not save some for later or share them with friends and family. Take leftover antibiotics to a pharmacy, which can dispose of them properly. And take up the vaccinations you are eligible for, so the infection does not happen in the first place.
Dame Diana Johnson, Minister for Public Health and Patient Safety, added one more: complete the course.
Dr Arora noted separately that cutting antibiotic use alone will not be enough: infections have to be prevented, and new treatment options explored.
Thanks for £1If this information was useful and came in time, press the heart. Payment goes through PayPal, with nothing to choose and nothing to fill in, and it pays for the newsroom.
- Life Russian-language events in London: verified dates to December 2026
- Life Where to buy the food you grew up with in London: Russian, Ukrainian, Polish and Baltic shops
- Immigration UK immigration rules change on 8 October 2026: what is new
- Travel England's railways move into public ownership: who has transferred and what it means for tickets
- Jobs & Business Post Your Ad Free
- Life Free English with a native speaker: how Russian speakers can find a language partner
- Immigration UK visa waiting times in 2026: the official UKVI timelines and how to get a decision in a day