Half a dozen influenza A viruses are also now on the list, including subtype H5, which has sparked an outbreak in cattle in the US.Among the five bacteria are strains that cause cholera, plague, dysentery, diarrhoea, and pneumonia. Two rodent viruses have also been added because they have jumped to people, with sporadic human-to-human transmission.Climate change and increased urbanization could raise the risk of these viruses transmitting to people, the report said.The WHO’s two previous efforts, in 2017 and 2018, identified roughly a dozen priority pathogens. More than 200 scientists spent some two years evaluating evidence on 1,652 pathogen species – mostly viruses, and some bacteria – to decide which ones to include on the list.Many of the priority pathogens are currently confined to specific regions but have the potential to spread globally, said Naomi Forrester-Soto, a virologist at the Pirbright Institute near Woking, UK, who also contributed to the analysis, the Nature report said.
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