The World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday released a new study listing 17 endemic pathogens that urgently require vaccines.
Published in the journal eBioMedicine, the study identifies HIV, malaria, and tuberculosis as top vaccine priorities due to their devastating annual toll of nearly 2.5 million lives collectively.
Despite advances in treatment, these diseases remain significant public health challenges, especially in low- and middle-income regions.
The WHO study represents the first global, systematic approach to prioritizing endemic pathogens based on factors like regional disease burden, antimicrobial resistance risk, and socioeconomic impact.
Notably, the study also identifies pathogens such as Group A streptococcus and Klebsiella pneumoniae as top disease control priorities in all regions, highlighting the urgency to develop new vaccines for pathogens increasingly resistant to antimicrobials.
Shift toward equity in global vaccine decision-making
“Too often global decisions on new vaccines have been solely driven by return on investment, rather than by the number of lives that could be saved in the most vulnerable communities,” said Dr Kate O’Brien, Director of the Immunization, Vaccines and Biologicals Department at WHO.
“This study uses broad regional expertise and data to assess vaccines that would not only significantly reduce diseases that greatly impact communities today but also reduce the medical costs that families and health systems face.”
WHO asked international and regional experts to identify factors that are most important to them when deciding which vaccines to introduce and use.
The analysis of those preferences, combined with regional data for each pathogen, resulted in the top 10 priority pathogens for each WHO region. The regional lists were then consolidated to form the global list, resulting in 17 priority endemic pathogens for which new vaccines need to be researched, developed, and used.
This new WHO global priority list of endemic pathogens for vaccine R&D supports the Immunization Agenda 2030’s goal of ensuring that everyone, in all regions, can benefit from vaccines that protect them from serious diseases.
The list provides an equitable and transparent evidence base to set regional and global agendas for new vaccine R&D and manufacturing and is intended to give academics, funders, manufacturers, and countries a clear direction for where vaccine R&D could have the most impact.
“This global prioritization exercise for endemic pathogens complements the WHO R&D blueprint for epidemics, which identified priority pathogens that could cause future epidemics or pandemics, such as COVID-19 or severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).
“The findings of this new report on endemic pathogens are part of WHO’s work to identify and support the research priorities and needs of immunization programmes in low- and middle-income countries, to inform the global vaccine R&D agenda, and to strategically advance the development and uptake of priority vaccines, particularly against pathogens that cause the largest public health burden and greatest socioeconomic impact,” the global health body said in a statement.
Here is WHO’s priority endemic pathogens list, however, the vaccines for these pathogens are at different stages of development.
Pathogens where vaccine research is needed
Pathogens where vaccines need to be further developed :
- Influenza virus (broadly protective vaccine)
- Plasmodium falciparum (malaria)
Pathogens where vaccines are approaching regulatory approval, policy recommendation, or introduction:
- Extra-intestinal pathogenic E. coli
- Mycobacterium tuberculosis
- Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV)
