The number of pathogens that could trigger the next pandemic has risen to over 30 and now includes influenza-a virus, dengue virus and monkey-decay virus, according to a this week from the world health organization (Who) was published. Researchers say that the list of "priority pathogens" organizations will help to decide where they should concentrate their efforts to develop treatments, vaccines and diagnostics.

"It is very comprehensive," says Neelika Malavige, an immunologist at the University of Sri Jayewardenepura in Colombo, Sri Lanka, who was involved in the effort. She studies the family of the Flaviviridae virus, which also includes the virus, the Denengue-Fieber caused.

The priority pathogens published in a report dated July 30 were selected based on their potential to trigger a global public health emergency in people such as a pandemic. This was based on indications that showed that the pathogens were highly transferable and virulent and that access to vaccines and treatments was limited. The two previous efforts of the WHO in 2017 and 2018 identified about a dozen prioritarized pathogens.

"The prioritization process helps to identify critical gaps in knowledge that must be addressed urgently", and guarantees the efficient use of resources, says Ana Maria Henao Restrepo, which heads the R&D Blueprint team for the WHO epidemics that created the report.

It is important to check these lists regularly to relevant Global Changes In Climate Change , Deforing, Urbanization, International Travel and More, says Malavige.

The latest efforts identified risky pathogens in entire virus and bacterial families, which expanded their scope.

mpox and smallpox

More than 200 scientists have evaluated evidence of 1,652 types of pathogens -mainly viruses and some bacteria -to decide which should be included in the list.

The over 30 priority pathogens include the group of coronaviruses, which are known as Sarbecovirus , which also includes SARS-COV-2-the virus that causes the global covid-19 pandemic-and merbecovirus , which includes the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome 3 Link "> Mers ). In previous lists, the specific viruses that cause heavy acute respiratory syndromes (sars) and Mers were not the entire subgenus to which they belong.

The new recordings in the list also includes the Monkeypox virus, which in 2022 a Global MPOX outbreak href = "https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-01167-5" Data-Track = "Click" Data-Label = "https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-01167-5" Data-track-category text Link "> Bags in Central Africa is common. The virus is viewed as a priority, as well as its relative, the Variola virus, causes the smallpox even though they were eradicated in 1980. This is because, due to the fact that people no longer be routinely vaccinated against the virus and therefore no immunity, a https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-01377-x "Data-Track =" Click " Data-label = "https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-01377-x" Data-Track-Category = "Body Text Link"> Unwanted release whose pandemic could trigger. The virus could potentially be used "by terrorists as a biological weapon", says Malavige.

Six influenza-a viruses are now on the list, including the subtype H5, which has a eruption to cattle in the United States. Among the five bacteria - all newly added - there are tribes that cause cholera, plague, ruhr, diarrhea and pneumonia.

Two rodents have also been added because they have passed to humans and there are sporadic human-to-human transmissions. According to the report, climate change and increased urbanization could increase the risk of being transferred to humans. The bat-handed Nipah-Virus stays on the list because it is fatal for animals and highly transferable, and there are currently no therapies that protect against it.

Many of the priority pathogens are currently limited to certain regions, but have the potential to spread globally, says Naomi Forrester Suno, a virologist at the Pirbright Institute near Woking, Great Britain, which was also involved in the analysis. She examines the Togaviridae family, which also includes the virus that causes Chikungunya. "There is no specific place that is most at risk," she says.

'prototype' pathogenic

In addition to the list of priority pathogens, the researchers also created a separate list of 'prototype' pathogens that could serve as model types for basic research and the development of therapies and vaccines. "This could help promote more research in less examined viruses and bacteria," says Forrester-Soto.

For example, there was no available human vaccines for one of the coronaviruses before the Covid 19 pandemic, says Malik Peiris, a virologist at the University of Hong Kong, who was part of the Coronaviridae research group. The development of vaccines for a member of the family will give the scientific community the confidence that it is better equipped in order to address a significant public health emergency for these viruses, he says. This also applies to treatments, he says, because "many antiviral active ingredients work against a whole group of viruses".

Forrester-Soto says that the list of pathogens is reasonable based on what researchers know about viruses. But "some pathogens on the list may never cause an epidemic, and one that we did not think about could be important in the future," she says. "We have almost never predicted the next emerging pathogen.".