“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
