Dear Friends,
You may have already seen that the WHO released this year the guidance “WHO List of Medically Important Antimicrobials (MIA): a risk management tool for mitigating antimicrobial resistance due to non-human use”. It is a risk management tool that provides guidance for authorities in the public health and animal health sectors, veterinarians, prescribers of antimicrobials, and agricultural professionals, to support decision-making to minimize the impact of antimicrobial use in non-human sectors on antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in humans. As such, the guidance complements the WHO AWaRe (Access, Watch, Reserve) framework; but it also aligns with related guidance of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) and the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH).
The MIA list categorizes antimicrobial classes as critically important, highly important, and important to human medicine, e.g. based on its role to treat serious bacterial infections, and bacterial infections possibly transmitted from non-human sources. For instance, it contains a list of 21 antimicrobials earmarked as “authorized for use in humans only”, such as plazomicin, aminomethylcycline, anti-pseudomonal penicillins with and without β-lactamase inhibitors, carbapenems with or without inhibitors, third- and fourth-generation cephalosporins with β-lactamase inhibitors, sulfones, as well as medicines critical to treating tuberculosis and other mycobacterial diseases. A second category of medically important antimicrobials refers to those “authorized for use in both humans and animals” (further broken down into “highest priority critically important antimicrobials (HPCIA),” “critically important antimicrobials (CIA),” “highly important antimicrobials,” and “important antimicrobials.”).
If interested, you may find additional information here: WHO publishes the WHO Medically Important Antimicrobials List for Human Medicine; and here: WHO Issues First-Ever List Of Antimicrobials With Category “For Use In Humans Only” - Health Policy Watch (healthpolicy-watch.news)
2024 WHO WHO List of Medically Important Antimicrobials.pdf (486 KB)