On Nov. 5, 2024, a World Health Organization (WHO) study published in eBioMedicine named 17 pathogens that regularly cause diseases in communities as top priorities for new vaccine development. The WHO study is the first global effort to systematically prioritize endemic pathogens based on criteria that included regional disease burden, antimicrobial resistance risk and socioeconomic impact.

The study reconfirmed longstanding priorities for vaccine research and development (R&D), including for HIV, malaria, and tuberculosis – three diseases that collectively take nearly 2.5 million lives each year.

The study also identified 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.