WHO Issues First List Of Potential Deadly Bacteria If No New Antibiotics Are Found

Microbial resistance to antibiotics has been rising and the world is now facing the serious possibility of falling back to the days when infectious diseases were hardly treatable. The World Health Organization today published a list of bacteria for which new antibiotics are most urgently needed, to help with the race against time, as the medical world is running out of treatment options.

The list of antibiotic-resistant ‘priority pathogens’ is the first published by the WHO, according to a press release. The list was drawn up “in a bid to guide and promote research and development (R&D) of new antibiotics, as part of WHO’s efforts to address growing global resistance to antimicrobial medicines.”

Bacteria have gotten smarter over time as they were countered by antibiotics and developed ways to survive. The list highlights the thread of gram-negatives bacteria which have become resistant to multiple antibiotics.

The list is organised into three categories according to the urgency of the need for new antibiotics: critical, high, and medium.

The need for new antibiotics is expected to be discussed by health experts from G20 countries this week in Berlin, according to the release.

The list, according to WHO, is “intended to spur governments to put in place policies that incentivize basic science and advanced R&D by both publicly funded agencies and the private sector investing in new antibiotic discovery. It will provide guidance to new R&D initiatives such as the WHO/DNDi Global Antibiotic R&D Partnership that is engaging in not-for-profit development of new antibiotics.” DNDi is the Drugs for Neglected Disease initiative.

The release specifies that tuberculosis has not been included in the list because it is targeted by other programmes. Streptococcus A and B and chlamydia, which have low levels of resistance to existing treatments were not included either.

WHO priority pathogens list for R&D of new antibiotics

“Priority 1: Critical

1. Acinetobacter baumannii, carbapenem-resistant
2. Pseudomonas aeruginosa, carbapenem-resistant
3. Enterobacteriaceae, carbapenem-resistant, ESBL-producing

Priority 2: high

4.Enterococcus faecium, vancomycin-resistant

5.Staphylococcus aureus, methicillin-resistant, vancomycin-intermediate and resistant

6.Helicobacter pylori, clarithromycin-resistant

7.Campylobacter spp., fluoroquinolone-resistant

8.Salmonellae, fluoroquinolone-resistant

9.Neisseria gonorrhoeae, cephalosporin-resistant, fluoroquinolone-resistant

Priority 3: MEDIUM

10.Streptococcus pneumoniae, penicillin-non-susceptible

11.Haemophilus influenzae, ampicillin-resistant

12.Shigella spp., fluoroquinolone-resistant”

Reactions

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF, Doctors Without Borders) issued an immediate reaction to the announcement, calling it a “valuable and urgently needed tool.”

“It’s getting harder to treat people for drug-resistant infections in the resource-limited settings in which we work. With the priority pathogen list, we need to urgently see new antibiotics developed that are affordable, appropriate, and accessible fill a depleted drug pipeline,” Rupa Kanapathipillai, MSF antimicrobial resistance advisor.

“It’s important to remember that tackling the growing AMR crisis isn’t just about new drugs. Improved diagnostics – ones that are fast, easy to use in field settings, and that can determine what infections are bacterial, identify what bacteria they are, and assess whether they are resistant to certain drugs – are crucial to reducing inappropriate antibiotic use in the first place,” Kanapathipillai said. “Governments have made important commitments to change how R&D investment into new antibiotics is spent; they should address priority health needs, and new antibiotics developed with public money should be affordable, and appropriately made available to everybody who needs them, no matter where they live.”