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.
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.
The superbug that tops the list is called Acinetobacter baumannii, which is a bacterium resistant to carbapenem, which is used to fight infections resistant to other antibiotics.
Rounding out the top three, which are deemed critical, are two other types of bacteria resistant to carbapenem (Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Enterobacteriaceae).
After the top three there are six bacteria that have a high priority and another three of medium priority.
A major problem that has contributed to growing antibiotic resistance has been a dwindling pipeline of new antibiotics.
The WHO hopes to spur more development into antibiotics by pinpointing the superbugs most at risk.
“Antibiotic resistance is growing, and we are fast running out of treatment options,” said Dr. Marie-Paule Kieny, WHO’s assistant director-general for health systems and innovation, in a statement. “If we leave the market forces alone, the new antibiotics we most urgently need are not going to be developed in time.”
Congress has passed some legislation to prioritize development of new treatments, with the latest being passed inside the 21st Century Cures Act. The law, which aims to speed up development of new cures, includes a provision that requires drug makers to label antibiotics to be used on specific patient populations and not for other uses.
A key driver of antibiotic resistance has been misuse of antibiotics for ailments other than what they were approved to treat. Another driver has been overuse of antibiotics in livestock, which leaves animals resistant to the drugs and passing that resistance off to humans when they are consumed.
The development has led several major food producers including Tysons and Perdue Chicken to cut antibiotic use.
