2002 - Full Report

For more information please email cipars-picra@hc-sc.gc.ca

Summary

AMR is an important public health issue worldwide. It also presents a serious economic challenge. It has been estimated that resistance at least doubles the cost of treating a bacterial infection.

Antimicrobial resistance in human medicine is primarily associated with the use of antimicrobials to treat human infections. There are several risk factors which may lead to a resistance problem in humans, for example:

• Use in agri-food industries to treat specific diseases, or to prevent illness and promote growth:
• Over-use and/or inappropriate use of antibiotics in human medicine.
• Use of antibacterial cleaning products such as community or household disinfectants or antiseptics and personal hygiene products.
• Environmental contamination caused by the use of cleaning and disinfection products as well as veterinary antimicrobial drugs used in farm and veterinary practice.
• Weakened immune system may make it more difficult to combat infections due to resistant bacteria.

International public health authorities are urging countries to implement integrated AMR surveillance systems. These systems are needed to:

• implement sound public health interventions;
• enhance prudent use practices in human and veterinary medicine; and
• support the development of international food safety standards

In 1997, Health Canada and the Canadian Infectious Disease Society convened a national consensus conference: "Controlling Antimicrobial Resistance: An Integrated Action Plan for Canadians." One of the recommendations was to establish a national surveillance system to monitor AMR in the agri-food and agriculture sectors and the impact of resistance on human health.

In 2002, the Canadian Integrated Program for Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance (CIPARS) was initiated to monitor trends in antimicrobial use and the development of resistance in selected bacterial organisms from human, animal and food sources across Canada. The program was developed to test the feasibility of a representative and methodologically unified surveillance system. CIPARS provides antimicrobial resistance and use monitoring data to assess the impact on human health. These data are crucial for making decisions for the formulation of intervention strategies to contain the spread of antimicrobial resistance.

The 2002 CIPARS Report offers the most current, valid and national data available on antimicrobial resistance in the food chain. Future CIPARS surveillance data will be more comprehensive, enabling in-depth analysis of trends and correlations between antimicrobial use and resistance in livestock, food and human populations. To better understand this complex issue, parallel targeted studies are underway to clarify risk factors for the development and spread of AMR.

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2002 Surveillance Report

Table of Contents

Abbreviations Used Throughout the Report

Acknowledgements

Executive Summary

Section One - Introduction

Section Two - Antimicrobial Resistance

Human Antimicrobial Resistance

Antimicrobial Resistance in the Agri-Food Sector

Section Three - Antimicrobial Use

Human Antimicrobial Use

Section Four - Future Plans

Appendix A - Additional Information

A.1. Drugs of Human Health Importance

A.2. Demographic Information

A.3. Human Antimicrobial Resistance - Current Reporting Structure for Enteric Disease

A.4. Agri-Food Antimicrobial Resistance

A.5. Antimicrobial Use - Animal

A.6. Antimicrobial Use - Human

Appendix B - Methods

B.1. Human Antimicrobial Resistance

B.2. Agri-Food Antimicrobial Resistance

B.3. Human Antimicrobial Data Collection & Analysis

Appendix C - References

Canadian Integrated Program for
Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance
(CIPARS)
2002 - full report
969 KB, 90 pages, in PDF format 

Erratum (August, 2004)