ABSTRACT
Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) causes more than a million deaths globally per year due to infections incurable with currently available antibiotics. Failing to effectively address AMR will have significant negative consequences for Canadians and the Canadian economy. Canada is behind on allocation of required funding and nationally coordinated AMR mitigation strategies relative to other high-income countries. A Pan-Canadian AMR action plan and development of a new governance model is pending. Recent AMR-specific funding commitments are significant but fall short while distribution of funds indicate a siloed approach. Canada could initiate progress towards AMR mitigation through incorporation within the scope of budget allocations intended for COVID-19 recovery and mitigation efforts. We discuss the following components for inclusion: development of infectious disease diagnostics and therapeutics; antimicrobial stewardship interventions in long-term care and Indigenous communities; environmental monitoring of AMR; comprehensive antimicrobial use, and AMR surveillance; and support for capacity-building in low and middle-income countries.
ABSTRACT
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) are parallel and interacting health emergencies that provide the opportunity for mutual learning. As their measures and consequences are comparable, the COVID-19 pandemic helps to illustrate the potential long-term impact of AMR, which is less acute but not less crucial. They may also impact each other as there is a push to use existing antimicrobials to treat critically ill COVID-19 patients in the absence of specific treatments. Attempts to manage the spread of COVID-19 may also lead to a slowdown in AMR. Understanding how COVID-19 affects AMR trends and what we can expect if these trends remain the same or worsen will help us to plan the next steps for tackling AMR. Researchers should start collecting data to measure the impact of current COVID-19 policies and programs on AMR.