WHO's First-Ever List Of The Dirty Dozen Superbugs

"The World Health Organization for the first time has issued a list of the top 12 "priority pathogens." They're disease-causing bacteria that are increasingly resistant to antibiotics, says WHO. Yet the development of new antibiotics to treat them has slowed to a crawl."

"'We are fast running out of treatment options,' says Dr. Marie-Paule Kieny, WHO's assistant director-general for Health Systems, in a statement."

"WHO says its new list is an attempt to get drug company and public research labs to make it a priority to collaborate on new treatments for the bacteria that pose the greatest threat to human health. "If we leave it to market forces alone, the new antibiotics we need are not going to be developed in time," says Kieny."