WHO on 28th Feb 2017 published its first ever list of antibiotic-resistant "priority pathogens" - a catalogue of 12 families of bacteria that pose the greatest threat to human health.
The list was drawn up in a bid to guide and promote research and development (R&D) of new antibiotics.
This is as part of WHO’s efforts to address growing global resistance to antimicrobial medicines.
The list highlights in particular the threat of gram-negative bacteria that are resistant to multiple antibiotics.
These bacteria have built-in abilities to find new ways to resist treatment and can pass along genetic material that allows other bacteria to become drug-resistant as well.
The WHO list is divided into three categories according to the urgency of need for new antibiotics: critical, high and medium priority.
| Priority 1: | CRITICAL |
| Acinetobacter baumannii, carbapenem-resistant |
| Pseudomonas aeruginosa, carbapenem-resistant |
| Enterobacteriaceae, carbapenem-resistant, ESBL-producing |
| Priority 2: | HIGH |
| Enterococcus faecium, vancomycin-resistant |
| Staphylococcus aureus, methicillin-resistant, vancomycin-intermediate and resistant |
| Helicobacter pylori, clarithromycin-resistant |
| Campylobacter spp., fluoroquinolone-resistant |
| Salmonellae, fluoroquinolone-resistant |
| Neisseria gonorrhoeae, cephalosporin-resistant, fluoroquinolone-resistant |
| Priority 3: | MEDIUM |
| Haemophilus influenzae, ampicillin-resistant |
| Streptococcus pneumoniae, penicillin-non-susceptible |
| Shigella spp., fluoroquinolone-resistant |
