Countermeasures to Antibiotics Crisis: a Global Priority List of Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria for Research and Development of New Antibiotics

On 27 Feb., 2017, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced the first list of important antibiotic-resistant bacteria (http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2017/bacteria-antibiotics-needed/en/), which tremendously threat human-being’s health. This list included 12 kinds of bacteria that were categorized into three priority tiers: Critical, High and Medium. In the first tier, Critical, three Gram negative bacteria were included: Acinetobacter baumannii with carbapenem-resistant, Pseudomonas aeruginosa with carbapenem-resistant; and Enterobacteriaceae with carbapenem-resistant, the third generation cephalosporin-resistant. In the second tier, High, six bacteria were suggested: Enterococcus faecium with vancomycin-resistant, Staphylococcus aureus with methicillin-resistant, vancomycin intermediate and resistant, Helicobacter pylori with clarithromycin-resistant, Campylobacter with fluoroquinolone-resistant, Salmonella spp. with fluoroquinolone-resistant, Neisseria gonorrhoeae with the third generation cephalosporin-resistant, fluoroquinolone-resistant. In the third tier, Medium, three bacteria were listed: Streptococcus pneumonia with penicillin-non-susceptible, Haemophilus influenza with ampicillin-resistant, and Shigella spp. with fluoroquinolone-resistant. This list was proposed by an expert panel, chaired by Dr. E. Tacconelli from Infectious Diseases, DZIF Center, Tübingen University, Germany and Dr. N. Magrini from EMP Department of WHO. This proposal recommended some key steps to countermeasure the challenges posed by multi-drug- and extensively drug-resistant bacteria, including research and development of new classes of antibiotics for the paediatric population, for preventing cross- and co-resistance to existing classes of antibiotics, and for oral formulations for community-acquired diseases with a high morbidity burden. This list will guide our future research and development of new antibiotics in future