This list highlights a total of 15 families of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, which are classified into various priority levels: critical, high and medium.
DIARIO DEL HUILA, HEALTH
In the last few hours, the World Health Organization, WHO, gave details about a new list of bacterial pathogens that are priorities for 2024. This list highlights a total of 15 families of bacteria resistant to antibiotics, which are classified at various priority levels: critical, high and medium.
It is not just any update: it seeks to precisely guide the research and development of new treatments to address the growing threat of antimicrobial resistance.
It is a serious public health problem, since antimicrobial resistance reduces the effectiveness of treatments and increases the morbidity and mortality of infectious diseases. As a consequence, the diseases they generate are more serious and contagious, so the risk of their spread represents a greater threat to human health.
Now, the WHO makes it clear that the inappropriate and excessive use of antibiotics has become the main cause of this phenomenon, which puts the achievements of modern medicine at risk.
The new WHO list of bacterial pathogens included very recent evidence and information provided by a group of global experts, which is very useful in carrying out research and subsequent development of new antibiotics that promote international coordination and promote innovation in pharmacology.
As Yukiko Nakatani, who serves as WHO’s acting assistant director-general for Antimicrobial Resistance, explains, the list of priority bacterial pathogens is based on the global burden of drug-resistant bacterial infections and their impact on public health.
This guide is then essential to guide investments in this field and overcome the challenges in obtaining new antibiotics for humanity. The threat of resistance has increased since the publication of the first list in 2017, which affects the effectiveness of numerous antibiotics. A situation that would undermine the important achievements of the most modern medicine.
Critical priority pathogens, such as Gram-negative bacteria resistant to last-resort antibiotics and Mycobacterium tuberculosis resistant to the antibiotic rifampicin, represent a global threat due to their ability to resist treatments and transmit resistance to other bacteria.
In this sense, experts explain that gram-negative bacteria, by resisting treatments, can transfer genetic material to other bacteria, which also causes resistance in them.
High-priority pathogens such as Salmonella and Shigella are also known to cause morbidity and mortality in low- and middle-income countries. Like Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus, which in the most serious cases can cause complex health problems.
Neisseria gonorrhoeae and Enterococcus faecium are also considered high-priority drug-resistant pathogens. If not attacked in time, they can trigger complications such as persistent infections and resistance to various antibiotics, requiring public health interventions and specific studies.
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