Canada has not done enough to fight growing antimicrobial resistance: AG
Global News
Canada hasn't done enough to address a "concerning" rise in resistance to antimicrobial drugs, including antibiotics, Auditor General Karen Hogan said Thursday.
Canada hasn’t done enough to address the “concerning” rise in resistance to antimicrobial drugs, including antibiotics, Auditor General Karen Hogan said Thursday.
“The COVID-19 pandemic showed that the cost of not being prepared is measured in lives lost,” Hogan said at a press conference in Ottawa. “For this reason, antimicrobial resistance is concerning.”
Hogan released an audit about Canada’s actions regarding the issue on Thursday.
The World Health Organization has put antimicrobial resistance in the top 10 public health threats to the world and called it a “silent pandemic” in 2022, saying up to 5 million deaths occur from it worldwide each year.
Research published in the medical journal Lancet in early 2022 found that “superbugs,” or germs that are resistant to antibiotics, caused more than 1.2 million deaths globally in 2019.
While the federal government came up with a plan to address the resistance in June 2023, Hogan says she is concerned it is missing “critical elements,” including ways to track progress, timelines, concrete deliverables and details of who is accountable for each action.
“Without these elements, it is unlikely this plan will result in any progress,” she said.
In Canada, 26 per cent of infections in 2018 did not respond to first-line antimicrobials, resulting in 5,400 deaths, according to the audit’s report. That resistance is predicted to increase to 40 per cent by 2050, according to the Council of Canadian Academics, with annual deaths increasing to 13,700.
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