“This is truly urgent,” Marie-Paule Kieny, PhD, the WHO’s assistant director-general for health systems and innovation, said in a press conference. While the list isn’t meant to scare people about new superbugs, Kieny explained, “It is intended to signal to the scientific community and the pharmaceutical industry the area they should focus on to address urgent public health threats.”
WHO priority pathogens list
Priority 1: Critical
Acinetobacter baumanni, 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
Salmonella, fluoroquinolone-resistant
Neisseria gonorrhea, cephalosporin-resistant, fluoroquinolone-resistant
Priority 3: Medium
Streptococcus pneumoniae, penicillin non-susceptible
Haemophilus influenzae, ampicillin-resistant
Shigella spp, fluoroquinolone-resistant