World Health Organisation ranks most dangerous superbugs

[cs_content][cs_section parallax=”false” style=”margin: 0px;padding: 45px 0px;”][cs_row inner_container=”true” marginless_columns=”false” style=”margin: 0px auto;padding: 0px;”][cs_column fade=”false” fade_animation=”in” fade_animation_offset=”45px” fade_duration=”750″ type=”2/3″ style=”padding: 0px;”][cs_text]A list of the bacteria that poses the biggest threat to human health due to increasing antibiotic resistance has been drawn up by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

In addition to drug resistance, the bacteria on the list were also chosen for a number of other reasons including the deadliness of resulting infections, how easily they can spread and how many treatment options remain.

WHO has drawn up the list to spur on governments to incentivize research and development into new antibiotics needed for these families of bacteria.

This is important to ensure that pharmaceutical companies focus on treatments that the world needs rather than those that promise a higher return on investment.

The situation is critical, with Dr Marie-Paule Kieny, WHO’s Assistant Director-General for Health Systems and Innovation saying: “If we leave it to market forces alone, the new antibiotics we most urgently need are not going to be developed in time.”

As such, the list was discussed by G20 health experts in Berlin last week with a view to taking joint action to tackle antimicrobial resistance.

So what are these high risk bacteria?

WHO’s list of priority pathogens for which we need to find new antibiotics is split into the three levels shown below.

The critical group includes bacteria that can cause serious and even fatal infections. They are already resistant to multiple drugs and are a particular threat in nursing homes and hospitals, especially among patients needing ventilators and blood catheters.

The high and medium priority tiers contain other bacteria that is also increasingly drug-resistant and can cause more common diseases such as food poisoning and gonorrhoea.

1. Critical
• Acinetobacter baumannii
• Pseudomonas aeruginosa
• Enterobacteriaceae

2. High priority
• Enterococcus faecium
• Staphylococcus aureus
• Helicobacter pylori
• Campylobacter
• Salmonellae
• Neisseria gonorrhoeae

3. Medium priority
• Streptococcus pneumoniae
• Haemophilus influenzae
• Shigella

What can care homes do?

Whilst it will be down to governments and pharmaceutical organisations to push for the development of new antibiotics, care home staff can still be in the front line of defence to prevent these terrible bugs taking hold.

By using a hospital-grade cleaner and disinfectant, such as Virusolve+, you can effectively destroy many of the bacteria on the list above, including Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphyloccocus aureus, Campylobacter and Salmonellae.

Depending on the bacteria, Virusolve+ can destroy it within 1 to 5 minutes, whilst also leaving a residual barrier that fights infection for up to 7 days.

Tackling the risk of these superbugs is critical in the battle against them taking hold and spreading. As the World Health Organisation says: “Whilst more R&D is vital, alone, it cannot solve the problem, To address resistance, there must be better prevention of infections…”

So if you haven’t tried Virusolve before why not try Cairn Care’s Virusolve+ Starter Kit by clicking here to visit the Cairn Care online store. It’s a handy way to try our Virusolve+ and see just how powerful it is at destroying some of the most threatening types of bacteria.

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