A list of priority pathogens was released by the WHO in the hopes of moving vaccine development away from commercial considerations to public health need. — AFP
The World Health Organization (WHO) on Nov 5 (2024) listed 17 pathogens that cause widespread disease and death, including HIV (human immunodeficiency virus), malaria and tuberculosis, for which it said new vaccines were “urgently needed”.
The United Nations health agency said that this list provides the first global effort to systematically prioritise endemic pathogens based on criteria including disease burdens, antimicrobial resistance (AMR) risk and socioeconomic impact.
“We need to do this because we would like to shift the focus from developing vaccines away from commercial returns towards regional and global health needs,” WHO vaccine specialist Dr Mateusz Hasso-Agopsowicz told reporters in Geneva, Switzerland, via video link from Poland.
The study reconfirms longstanding priorities for vaccine research and development, including HIV, malaria and tuberculosis – three diseases that collectively kill nearly 2.5 million people each year, WHO said.
But it also identifies lesser-known pathogens as top disease control priorities, highlighting the urgency to develop new vaccines for pathogens that are becoming increasingly resistant to antimicrobials.
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Among them was Group A streptococcus, which causes severe infections and contributes to some 280,000 deaths from rheumatic heart disease each year, mainly in lower-income countries.
It also highlights the dangers of Klebsiella pneumoniae – a bacteria that is responsible for around 40% of neonatal deaths due to blood infection, or sepsis, in low-income countries.
These vaccines “would not only significantly reduce diseases that greatly impact communities today, but also reduce the medical costs that families and health systems face”, WHO vaccine chief Dr Kate O’Brien said in a statement.
Vaccines for the various pathogens listed are at different stages of development, WHO said, with some like ones for HIV, Group A streptococcus and hepatitis C virus still at the research stage.
Others, like ones for dengue and tuberculosis, have been developed and are approaching regulatory approval or introduction.
Dr Hasso-Agopsowicz explained that the 17 listed pathogens were wreaking the most havoc in lower-income countries, explaining why more progress has not been made previously on developing vaccines against them.
“What typically has happened in the past is that vaccine research and development has been influenced by profitability of new vaccines.
“What that means is that diseases that severely affect low-income regions unfortunately receive much less attention,” he said.
With the new list, he said, “we want to change the focus... so that the new vaccine research and development is driven by health burden and not just commercial opportunities.” – AFP Relaxnews
