World AMR Awareness Week 2025 – November 18-24

World AMR (Antimicrobial Resistance) Awareness Week (WAAW), previously known as “World Antimicrobial Awareness Week (WAAW), is annually observed across the globe from 18–24 November, to raise AMR awareness and promote One Health practices that curb drug-resistant infections.

• WAAW serves as a global annual initiative directed by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Theme: 

2025 Theme: “Act Now: Protect Our Present, Secure Our Future”
Focus: The theme emphasizes that AMR is a present threat to health, food systems, and economies, requiring immediate and sustained investment

Background:

Origin: The 68th World Health Assembly (WHA) in 2015 endorsed the global action plan to tackle AMR..

First Observance: The first World Antibiotic Awareness Week was held from 16–22 November 2015.

Expansion: In May 2020, Tripartite Organisations – the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH), formerly the Office International des Epizooties (OIE), and WHO broadened the week’s focus from “antibiotics” to “antimicrobials”.

Renaming: The Tripartite Executive Committee has also decided to fix WAAW dates to 18th to 24th November starting from 2020. Since 2020, the event has been observed as “World Antimicrobial Awareness Week”.

About Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR):

Definition: Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) arises when microorganisms such as bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites no longer respond to antimicrobial medicines, making infections harder or sometimes impossible to treat.

Impact: AMR increases the risk of disease spread, severe illness and death, undermines essential medical procedures, harms human and animal health, disrupts food systems, affects global economies

2025 Event:

Global Observance: The Quadripartite Organisations FAO, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), WHO and WOAH led the 2025 campaign under the One Health approach.

7-7-7 Campaign: The Health Diplomacy Alliance (HDA) launched the “7-7-7 Campaign,” involving seven stakeholders in seven coordinated actions over seven days.

Global Dialogue: A Global Intergenerational Dialogue on AMR was conducted on 24 November 2025 at the Palais des Nations, Geneva, Switzerland, to enhance youth engagement and formulate practical recommendations for inclusive AMR governance.

2025 report: 

Glass report: Global antibiotic resistance surveillance report 2025 compiles data from over 23 million infections across 104 reporting countries, reflecting a fourfold increase in surveillance participation since 2016.

• The WHO Global Antimicrobial Resistance and Use Surveillance System (GLASS) helps countries build national surveillance systems and generate standardized data for public health action.Resistance 

WHO report: The WHO report on vaccines for antimicrobial resistance estimates that vaccines across 24 pathogens and 44 vaccine types could significantly reduce AMR and antibiotic use, noting that failure to address AMR may result in up to USD 3.4 trillion in annual global Gross Domestic Product (GDP) losses by 2030.

National Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance 2.0:

On 18 November 2025, Union Minister Jagat Prakash Nadda, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) launched the second version of the National Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance 2025–2029 (NAP-AMR 2.0) in New Delhi (Delhi), during World AMR Awareness Week (WAAW) 2025.

• The plan seeks to close the gaps identified in the first NAP-AMR (2017–2021) by adopting a strengthened One Health approach that integrates human, animal, and environmental health sectors.

About World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH):
Director General (DG) – Dr. Emmanuelle Soubeyran
Headquarters – Paris, France
Established – 1924