News

The number of cases in 2025 so far has already surpassed the total number of cases in 2024. According to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA), 44,930 CRE infections have been reported as at Dec 1, a 6.1 per cent increase from the 42,347 cases documented in all of 2024. Since CRE became part of mandatory nationwide surveillance in June 2017, cases have risen steadily each year: from 5,717 reports in 2017 to 11,954 in 2018, 15,369 in 2019, 18,113 in 2020, 23,311 in 2021, 30,548 in 2022, and 38,405 in 2023. South Korea remains among the highest antibiotic-consuming nations in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) As at 2023, the country recorded 31.8 defined daily doses per 1,000 people, the second-highest level among 34 member countries with available data and significantly above the OECD average of 18.3 defined daily doses.