#18,221
In 2017 and again in 2018 the WHO released a short list of priority diseases (see WHO List Of Blueprint Priority Diseases) - that due to their potential to cause a public health emergency - was felt there was an urgent need for accelerated research and development for:
- Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever (CCHF)
- Ebola virus disease and Marburg virus disease
- Lassa fever
- Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)
- Nipah and henipaviral diseases
- Rift Valley fever (RVF)
- Zika
- Disease X
An update was expected in 2020, but a SARS-COV-2 pandemic took center stage. But this week, the WHO has unveiled a detailed 38-page Pathogens Prioritization report, which greatly expands the old list.
In this latest report, the number of priority pathogens has grown to more than 30 (see charts below).
Additions include 7 different influenza A subtypes (H1, H3, H3, H5, H6, H7, and H10), and 5 bacterial strains that cause cholera, plague, dysentery, diarrhea and pneumonia (see yesterday's report on Hypervirulent Klebsiella pneumoniae (hvKp) ST23).
This is expected to be a `living document', one that will be updated every year or two, as new threats emerge and others fade away.
I've only had a brief time to scan this report, but it appears well worth downloading and spending time reviewing.
