The 12 deadliest drug-resistant bacteria have officially been ranked

In the face of rising antibiotic resistance, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has published its first ever list of the deadliest superbugs that threaten human health.

This so-called dirty dozen encompasses 12 families of dangerous bacteria that have developed resistance to the drugs used to treat common infections. Antibiotic-resistance costs some 700,000 lives each year, and if the phenomenon can't be halted, experts predict that the number could grow to 10 million deaths annually by 2050.

The WHO list appears below:
WHO priority pathogens list for R&D of new antibiotics

Priority 1: CRITICAL
1. Acinetobacter baumannii, carbapenem-resistant
2. Pseudomonas aeruginosa, carbapenem-resistant
3. Enterobacteriaceae, carbapenem-resistant, ESBL-producing

Priority 2: HIGH
1. Enterococcus faecium, vancomycin-resistant
2. Staphylococcus aureus, methicillin-resistant, vancomycin-intermediate and resistant
3. Helicobacter pylori, clarithromycin-resistant
4. Campylobacter spp., fluoroquinolone-resistant
5. Salmonellae, fluoroquinolone-resistant
6. Neisseria gonorrhoeae, cephalosporin-resistant, fluoroquinolone-resistant

Priority 3: MEDIUM
1. Streptococcus pneumoniae, penicillin-non-susceptible
2. Haemophilus influenzae, ampicillin-resistant
3. Shigella spp., fluoroquinolone-resistant

The full report is available on the WHO's website