World Health Organization just put out the scariest list ever

By Robert King

Published February 27, 2017 5:19pm ET

World Health Organization just put out the scariest list ever — At least 23,000 people die from superbugs each year and at least 2 million people get infected with bacteria resistant to antibiotics, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Janice Carr/CDC via AP) | Janice Carr

The World Health Organization has published one of the scariest lists ever: a catalog of 12 superbugs that pose the greatest threat to human health.

The list was created on Monday as a guide to promote research and development of new antibiotics, which have been waning in effectiveness due to overuse. The lack of new antibiotics and increasing resistance to decades-old drugs means that regular infections could quickly turn deadly in a matter of days.