WHO has updated the list of bacteria that threaten human health that are resistant to antibiotics

The World Health Organization (WHO) published this Friday a list of 15 bacteria that it considers a threat to human health due to their growing resistance to antibiotics, and called for the development of new treatments.

The list is an update to a list compiled in 2017, and with this publication WHO once again warns of the risk of increasing antimicrobial resistance in some pathogens.

According to the WHO, antibiotic resistance causes about 1.27 million direct deaths each year and contributes to an additional 4.19 million other deaths.

The 15 bacteria are classified into three priority categories (medium, high and critical), with the WHO placing four pathogens in the last, most urgent category: Acinetobacter baumannii, Mycobacterium tuberculosis and two types of Enterobacteriaceae that are resistant to treatment with the carbapenem and cephalosporin antibiotic classes.

“[Estas bactérias] They pose a serious global threat due to their enormous impact and ability to resist treatment and transfer this resistance to other bacteria,” the organization said in a statement.

High-priority bacteria include salmonella and shigella, which WHO says are common in developing countries, as well as other bacteria that commonly cause point-of-care infections, such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa or Staphylococcus aureus.

Other bacteria on the list pose challenges to health systems, including persistent infections and multiple antibiotic resistance, which require research and public health interventions, WHO stresses.

“Since the list was first published in 2017, the threat of antimicrobial resistance has increased, undermining the effectiveness of many antibiotics and threatening many advances in modern medicine,” warned WHO antimicrobial chief Yukiko.

Antimicrobial resistance occurs when bacteria, viruses, fungi, or parasites stop responding to medications, worsening disease and increasing the risk of infection, mortality, and severity of certain pathologies. This problem is caused in part by the overuse of antibiotics in many patients.

A recent WHO report found that during the Covid-19 pandemic, patients hospitalized with the disease overused antibiotics, which may have worsened antimicrobial resistance.

Although only 8% of patients hospitalized with Covid-19 also had bacterial infections that required antibiotics, these drugs were prescribed to three out of four patients (75%).