Canada Makes 5-Year Commitment to Tackling AMR Through One Health Approach
Following a One Health approach, Canadian federal, provincial, and territorial (FPT) governments have made a 5-year commitment for concerted action to tackle antimicrobial resistance (AMR) through ten shared priority actions across five pillars. The action plan was developed by the FPT Steering Committee, which consisted of government representatives from the public health, human and animal health, agriculture, and agrifood sectors.
Nearly 15 people in Canada per day were estimated to have lost their lives to resistant infections in 2018, and, in the same year, the economic burden of AMR on Canada’s healthcare system and gross domestic product (GDP) totaled $1.4 billion and $2.0 billion, respectively. There is global consensus that AMR must be addressed by adopting a One Health approach, meaning that actions to limit the emergence and spread of AMR must be multi-sectoral and consider the close interplay between humans, animals, crops, and the shared environment.